Dutch woman invents fully biodegradable face masks that's designed to be thrown away.
Millions of face masks are being carelessly discarded and harming the environment. So, it's great news that designer Marianne de Groot-Pons - fed up with spotting disposable masks littering the environment each time she went for a walk - decided to do something about it.
So, in January, she started working on a concept for a disposable mask that helps biodiversity to thrive. Apart from being fully biodegradable, she puts flower seeds between the rice paper sheets so that the masks can be planted in your garden after use.
She sells her masks under the name Marie Bee Bloom and has been surprised by the demand for her products. In only 5 weeks, she has had to move from her kitchen table, where she assembled the masks herself, and employ 30 other people to keep up with the work.
"The idea is to bloom the world," she explains. "This is your chance to make the bees happy and give something back to nature".
For now, she sells the homemade masks in the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany, but in a few weeks, she expects to open to the whole of Europe.