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Hospital face masks find new life stopping plastic waste

All schools and colleges in Cornwall are being given litter pickers made from old hospital masks.

The Royal Cornwall Hospital in Truro says repurposing and reusing some of its surgical masks helps reduce plastic pollution.

The BBC's health, science and environment reporter Laura Foster has been to see how the hospital's on-site machine transforms the PPE into pickers and how the children at Penponds School near Camborne are getting on with them.

Follow Laura on twitter.

21 September 2021

Personal protective equipment (PPE)

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The recycled bedding has been distributed to new owners who have signed up to the scheme

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Bench at Wembley Stadium

Plastic Wembley pitches being recycled into benches

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Doug Barrowman and Michelle Mone

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Michelle Mone

Mone admits she stands to benefit from £60m PPE profit

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Volunteers remove 2,000 tyres from riverbed

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The new waste disposal site on the Isle of Man

New recycling centre and rubbish tip opens

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Scottish Secretary Alister Jack strongly defended the decision to remove glass from the scheme

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BBC Scotland's Judith Ralston says there is also a weather warning as high winds are expected to hit the Western Isles and the north-west

Storm Bert brings rain and high winds on Sunday

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With some travel disruption, children and dogs have been enjoying the cold weather

Watch: Scotland under a blanket of snow from Storm Bert

Children and dogs have been enjoying the cold weather despite the freezing conditions.

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Atmospheric river dumps snow and record rain on California

The weather event has multiplied damages from the 'bomb cyclone' seen in the US north-west earlier this week.

Science & Environment

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A yellow alert for high winds gusting up to 60 mph (97km/h) covers the whole of Scotland

Weather forecast ahead of Storm Ashley

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The Hunter's supermoon is seen shining brightly between two buildings, as the moon shines through London's skyline on 17 OCtober

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SpaceX's Super Heavy booster fires out of its exhaust at the bottom of the rocket itself while it lands into the rocket launcher holder that it fired out of, during SpaceX Starship's fifth flight test, in Boca Chica, Texas, U.S., October 13, 2024

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SpaceX Starship booster caught in mid air

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Meteorologist becomes emotional giving Hurricane Milton update

The weather system has rapidly intensified into a category five storm with winds of up to 175mph (281km/h).

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Suni Williams and Barry 'Butch' Wilmore grin as they float aboard the International Space Station

'Space is my happy place,' says stranded astronaut

Suni Williams and Barry 'Butch' Wilmore gave an update from the ISS on their extended stay in space.

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Sarah Gillis emerges from a capsule into dark space

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Isaacman said the Earth looked like a "perfect world" as he stepped out into space for the first time.

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Video shows Titanic missing large section of railing

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A video grab shows the northern lights (Aurora Borealis) flickering over the earth's surface with the moon setting in the background, and parts of the Internation Space Station (ISS) visible in the foreground. The Earth's curvature can be seen as it rotates

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A timelapse captured from the International Space Station shows the Moon setting into streams of aurora.

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Pink and green Northern Lights hang in the sky above a car in a field

Timelapse shows Northern Lights glowing above Wisconsin

The footage reveals the light show that concurred with the Perseid meteor shower earlier this week.

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The Titan Arum plant took 12 years before it successfully flowered in the venue's Glasshouse in 2015.

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The vehicle set off from a launchpad in French Guiana on a demonstration mission.

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High winds and heavy rain as Caribbean hit by hurricane

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Duckling family march to safety at Hardwick Hall

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