Masks Are Terrible For the Environment – But We Need Them Right Now

High quality surgical masks are crucial at most times, but especially now. But what about the carbon footprint? You don’t want to increase your personal or business footprint. At INCYT RESILIENCE INC., we are making sure that our surgical mask carbon footprint is handled – this isn’t easy, but we’ve made tremendous progress. This article explains why and how.

We’re making and selling surgical masks that, though they can technically be recycled, are not. Further, they should not be recycled, due to the potential hazard that they present – (i.e. they are a potential biohazard once used). This means our masks are disposed of in landfills. 

We have looked at many options (e.g. biodegradable materials, alternate plastics for the fabrics) without much luck. So, we’re stuck with offsetting our surgical mask carbon footprint. 

We did some research on where the best approaches are for carbon offsets. It’s a confusing world when you look into this: planted trees can be cut down and aren’t overly effective; protected land can be misused; sequestration is in kind of a voodoo space now; etc.

Thankfully, Shopify (another Canadian company!) did a ton of research and found a supplier that meets their stringent needs. Their analysis is fantastic – so we’re following in their footprint. Shopify’s approach to carbon offsets looked to ensure that their offset program meet the following criteria: 

• Additionality: The carbon offset needs to lead to a reduction of CO2 emissions that would not have happened otherwise. That means no investments in national parks that are already protected, for example.
• Permanence: This can’t be a short-term solution. Carbon captured and represented in offsets needs to be stored forever, or for a very, very long time.
• No double-counting: Offsets are a one-and-done thing. Their impact cannot be recorded twice.
• Monitoring and verification: Good offsets need to actually do the thing they are meant to be doing, and that thing needs to be able to be verified.
• Scalability: We wanted to invest in projects that have the ability to scale and receive results quickly, without relying on manual processes that take up a lot of time and resources.