Discarded Face Masks Upcycled into Stools by Haneul Kim.

Since Covid-19 outbreak, the world has seen an explosive demand for single-use face masks, as the number of discarded items has rapidly been accumulating. According to South Korean designer Haneul Kim, 129 billion disposable masks are dumped around the world each month. “Plastic-based disposable masks protect human life, but eventually become microplastics due to wear and weathering once discarded, threatening marine life, and even human life,” he says.

Kim collected thousands of used disposable face masks from his university campus and recycled them into stackable stools. Dubbed “Stack and Stack (In Pandemic)”, the project hopes to set an example for how discarded waste can be diverted from ending up in landfill and in our oceans.

Approximately 1,500 face masks are found in each stool – these are melted, cooled, hardened and eventually stacked to create white, black, blue, pink and multi-coloured versions of the stool.

Related: Circula: Tomek Rygalik’s Circular Design.


“Thousands of masks, which were this thin fabric, combine together and finally have the durability of a hard, tough plastic that can function as a stool,” says Kim.

“I hope that the curiosity of recycling masks will not stop at the object of chairs, but will evoke the seriousness of environmental pollution and become an important possibility to solve the problem,” concludes the designer.

Related: Supernovas Launches 100% Recycled & Recyclable Furniture Collection Designed By Odd Matter.

[Images courtesy of Haneul Kim.]