Application of nonwoven polypropylene surgical mask as a composition of hybrid geotextile

Abstract

The increased waste of surgical masks significantly impacts the environment, especially with the surging cases of COVID-19. This paper utilized the nonwoven polypropylene strips in a surgical mask to modify banana fibers as a hybrid composite geotextile. Comparative performance was examined to assess the physical, mechanical, and hydraulic properties for the application of separation of subgrade and subbase layers. Hybrid geotextile was compared to mask geotextile, banana geotextile, and commercially made geotextile. The hybrid geotextile having the highest average mass per unit area of 1840 g/m2 , results in higher tensile strength for both machine direction (82 kN/m2) and cross-machine direction (79 kN/m2), which was proven to produce better performance. Also, the hybrid geotextile consistently demonstrated the highest tensile strengths between groups, having values of 73 kN/m2, 69 kN/m2, and 63 kN/m2 for 6, 12, and 18 days, respectively, after being immersed in soil. Among the groups of geotextiles, hybrid material (10.54%,16.47%, and 23.79%) has the least percentage of tensile strength loss after exposure. It was expected since the polypropylene strips reinforced the decomposition progress of banana fiber. Moreover, its 0.55 mm pore opening size shows promising results since the blending twist of banana and Polypropylene as warp and weft threads resulted in alternate arrangements producing a good amount of cover. The trade-off analysis also proved that given the parameters, hybrid geotextile ranked as the lowest, scoring 1.6, which implied efficiency as a separator between subgrade and subbase layers. Thus, the hybrid geotextile could best withstand the expansion force by laboratory testing even after weather and field exposure.