As I mentioned in an earlier blog post, I was recently traveling in South America with my family.  Upon my return (fortunately after not during), I contracted the COVID virus.  I tried tenaciously to keep my husband from contracting the virus also by isolating from him and wearing masks whenever I couldn’t avoid being near him. (Our house is only so big.)  Alas, I failed, or he already had it too.  We have both recovered and after a couple of weeks tested negative – yay!!  Which brings me to the topic of masks.  Ever since March 2020, we’ve been wearing masks.  My sisters and I made hundreds of cloth masks for friends and family, but then were told those did not provide enough protection against the virus.  We, like most other people, started wearing disposable instead of reusable masks.  Guess what? Most of those disposable masks are made of – yes – plastic.  The way we use them, they are also single-use plastic and a lot of them end up in our water bodies harming wildlife.  While I still wear my cloth masks for low-risk situations, I feel safer with the KN95 masks.  I searched for an alternative to single-use masks and discovered Vida & Co., with its corporate office in San Francisco, CA.  Vida & Co. sells quite a variety of masks, including those made with plastic, some made with silk, and some made with cotton.  On further review, I learned that Vida is now selling KN95 99% biodegradable masks made from corn.  When you order their recyclable or biodegradable masks, you get a prepaid postage label to return the used masks for proper composting and recycling.  You can even return masks from other vendors.  I’ve purchased many of the “plastic masks” and I’ve just ordered some of the biodegradable masks. 

What can you do?

• Order recyclable/compostable masks.  Vida & Co. provides some great options.  Vida & Co.’s website is https://shopvida.com.

• Be mindful of how you dispose of masks so they don’t harm wildlife.  Cut the straps before you put them in the garbage so that unlucky birds or other wildlife do not get trapped.