Yes, of course.
We tried to start in a place that would be sensitive to action. We found that sensitivity in a university. Actually, it's two institutions: the Université de Sherbrooke and the Centre hospitalier universitaire de Sherbrooke. In them, we succeeded in establishing a form of mask recovery because of the pressure from student and other groups. We have some very active environmental groups in the institutions.
So, since November, we have been systematically using specially marked containers to recover standard-issue masks, because people can wear them only for half a day before having to replace them. We have already filled one container to the brim. We have a working agreement with a processing plant in the region. We want the project to take the form of a circular economy in which plants in the University area, in Estrie, the Eastern Townships, can participate. So we have come up with the idea of making a new bio-based material with the masks.
An average mask contains 2.47 g of polypropylene. You get almost 2.5 g of polypropylene just by cutting out the rectangle. So you recover the masks, you simply take off the elastic and you get very good quality polypropylene that is completely recyclable. It's no problem at all, except that you have to set up a way to recover and store the masks and then transport them to a factory where you can make the bio-based material by mixing in recycled wood fibre with the polypropylene. That gives a bio-based composite of polypropylene reinforced with wood fibre.
The bio-based material can be used in one of three ways. We can use it directly to make construction panels, 4 x 8 panels, for example, or wall panels. You can also mould it to make various objects because the material behaves like plastic, except that it is much stronger because of the high content of shredded fibre. That's the first possibility.
The second possibility is depolymerization. A company in Estrie called Enerkem takes all kinds of organic and carbon-based materials and depolymerizes them. This means that it breaks down polymers into the small constituent molecules. They then produce syngas, a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen, which they then synthesize into all kinds of other molecules. Currently, it is synthesizing ethanol from any kind of organic material that it has depolymerized in this way.
The final possibility is to use it as an alternative carbon-neutral fuel. Given that it is a bio-based material made up of two thirds of organic matter and one third of fossil-based polypropylene, the bio-based material as a whole is classified as one that has a role in sustainable development. It can be used as a alternative, carbon-neutral fuel. To me, burning it is not the best thing to do; recycling it is better. However, it can be burned to drive a small generator in a plant, for example, producing electricity in a closed circuit, because it is completely carbon neutral.
So you can see that it has significant financial advantages. Whatever a company does with this bio-based material, it can put itself in a particularly advantageous position in terms of carbon credits and anything else that will come along in the future.