How to reuse face masks in a creative way

7 min reading

COOL PROJECT

7 October 2021

TA-DAAN SELECTION

When the going gets tough, creative people get going! 😷🦠
Nowadays we are facing environmental issues and some of them are connected to the pandemic. Single use masks are a good example. Although we all recognize their utility, is also evident how much they pollute (just think of how many you see abandoned on the streets).
Therefore the questions: how can we reduce single-use? How can we give a second life to millions of disposable masks? Can we re-use, recycle, upcycle them?
Scroll down to a selection of creative projects made with surgical masks👇🏽

N. 1

Couch-19 & Coat-19

Environmental committed creations by the designer Tobia Zambotti

Couch-19 and Coat-19 are both made with light-blue masks collected from the streets of Reykjavík before they ended up in the ocean and, after being disinfected used as filler for the couch and coat.
The pouf has been shaped to recalls the aesthetics of an iceberg: one of the most iconic symbols of global warming.
The puffer jacket has been made in collaboration with Aleksi Saastamoinen, a fashion design student at Aalto university.

Category: furniture, clothing

💡: Tobia Zambotti

N. 2

We overcome many difficulties

Masks can become art in the hand of Tatsuya Tanaka
This famous Japanese artist is specialized in miniature dioramas and after the first lockdown he started playing around with surgical masks, the symbol of the pandemic, giving them a new function and meaning.

Category: photography
💡: Tatsuya Tanaka

N. 3

Turntable

A ceiling of masks! 🌌🤩 Exists (in Camden, New Jersey) and the effect is amazing; Amanda Schachter & Alexander Levi from SLO architecture designed Turntable, a rotating public installation using thousands of two-liter soda bottles for the outer skin and 3-ply polypropylene face masks for the interior dome.
Take some time to have a look at this project, you won’t regret it!

Category: installation
📍: Camden, New Jersey
💡: SLO architecture studio

N. 4

No escape

Isolation put us in chains!
This is what the public performance “no escape” by the landscape architect Chaosteria in collaboration with Xixi Zi and Xuegang Wang, is claiming!
The performance took place in Milano, in front of Duomo.
Here, the face masks are used to wrap the performer’s body and symbolize constrictions and restraint.

Category: performance
📍: Milan, Italy
💡: Chaosteria, Xixi Zi and Xuegang Wang

N. 5

Mask Tote Bag

“I made a tote bag out of my used single use masks. The straps are made of the earloops. The bag is suprisingly durable, water resistant, and frankly kinda fashionable 🤙” – Canoopsy

Category: accessories
💡: Canoopsy

TAG: COVID-19, artist, cool project, design, face masks, product designer, selection, sustainability

COOL PROJECT