Hamilton firm’s technology addresses ‘COVID waste’ and PPE shortage
Published July 13, 2020 at 9:15 pm
A Hamilton-based firm has developed a technology that could reduce the amount of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) heading to our landfills while addressing the shortage.
A Hamilton-based firm has developed a technology that could reduce the amount of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) heading to our landfills while addressing the shortage.
SteriRight, a firm founded this year that offers services to reduce contamination risk in a safe, effective and accessible manner, has created a device that can sterilize single-use face masks in a matter of minutes.
“Utilizing a state-of-the-art, Health Canada-authorized technology, the SteriRight process kills 99.99% of a surrogate for COVID-19 on disposable filtering face masks,” SteriRight’s website says.
“The treatment takes under a minute and is effective on a wide range of infectious agents.”
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The company brings their expertise and technology to offices and facilities in their customized mobile unit.
So how do they kill the pathogens and make it so that some previously disposable masks can be reused?
“For the unit to create this atmosphere, three ingredients must be mixed together within a specific temperature range,” SteriRight explains on their website.
The three ingredients, they reveal are: Ozone gas, proprietary Hydrogen Peroxide Solution and
UV-C Light.
Masks are loaded onto a conveyor belt in the reprocessing machine and they’re ready for reuse in under an hour, SteriRight claims.
Technology like this has the potential to reduce the incredible amount of single-use PPE that is currently making its way to landfills.
In fact, environmentalists have been warning of the potential impacts of ‘COVID waste’.
Recent reports have raised the alarm over the amount of PPE found in the world’s oceans.
A blog post on SteriRight’s website says that while safety and preventing the spread of COVID-19 is of the utmost importance, but being aware of the environmental impacts of some of the means of protecting ourselves can also help mitigate one’s carbon footprint.
“Large businesses and hospitals should be thinking about reducing waste given that they use so many supplies on a daily basis,” the blog post says.
“They can try to enforce employees’ behaviour, but to make an even bigger impact, businesses and healthcare facilities should make institutional changes.”
To learn more about SteriRight’s services and their mask reprocessing technology, visit their website here.
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