If you haven’t been a social recluse hiding out at home under a rock like Patrick Star, you would know that it’s been almost impossible to get a hold of a box of masks.
In fact, it’s been such a hot commodity that people are taking to Carousell and social media sites to try to scam those who are desperate to buy masks amidst COVID-19.
In fact, one Singapore man even successfully scammed others of $175k on Carousell.
But maybe the situation wouldn’t be so bad if people invented masks that can be reused again and again…
China: Hold my beer
China Coming Out with Face Masks That Can be Used Up to 10 Times
It looks like our prayers have been answered:
Two Shanghai companies are jointly producing recyclable face masks which is the first of its kind in China, according to the municipal government.
Shanghai Economic and Information Technology Committee explained that the new KN95 masks, which adopts nanotechnology can be reused up to 10 times after disinfection.
And head’s up guys, it’s already in production.
In fact, factories are producing as many as 100,000 masks per day and the output is expected to reach 300,000 per day on Friday.
The masks will cost around S$3-5.
The committee has also provided guidance with regards to the design, production and sales.
Shanghai Juchen Infant and Children Garment Company and Shanghai Hanpu New Material Hi-tech Company which are both found in the Qingpu district will be the ones doing the manufacturing.
Unclear When Masks Will Be On Sale
For those of you who are getting excited about the possibility of new masks in the market, hold up.
As of now, it’s unclear as to when the masks will be available for sale, however, some of it will be sold on Pinduoduo which is a mainland e-commerce platform.
The reason why recyclable masks have been manufactured is because there is a shortage of raw materials for disposable masks, specifically melt-blown non-wovens and non-woven cloth.
Each of the new masks can filter 95% of particles with a mass median diameter of 0.3 micrometres. The masks also have high permeability and are waterproof.
This filtering ability can last for as long as 200 hours which is more than 20 times of normal disposable masks.
Pretty neat, isn’t it?
Here’s how it looks like:
No lah I’m kidding. We don’t know how it looks like yet.
