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Jordanian chef Omar Sartawi has created a ‘sustainable’ face mask made from eggplant skins.
The innovation follows government advice across the world to wear a mouth and nose covering in an effort to lessen the spread of coronavirus (Covid-19).
The masks are made by dehydrating eggplant skins using salt to create a leather-like material. They are then sewn together with cotton to make them more durable.
‘Sustainable luxury’
According to Yahoo News, Sartawi said: “There’s an ongoing trend towards sustainable luxury, so I thought why not create leather using the eggplant peel, preserving the eggplant, instead of throwing out these peels.
“We can recycle them and use them for fashion, for several things. So, I started developing it.”
‘More masks than jellyfish’
Environmentalists have warned the pandemic could cause an increase in ocean pollution – after many single-use face masks were found discarded across seabeds and beaches across Europe.
According to The Guardian, France had ordered two billion disposable masks causing environmentalist Laurent Lombard to add: “Knowing that… we’ll [soon] run the risk of having more masks than jellyfish in the Mediterranean.”
