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Designer recycles PPE for Covid beds - 18th January 2021

Covid patients in India are being made more comfortable thanks to fashion designer Lakshmi Menon. She is recycling waste plastic to provide Covid care centres with comfortable beds.

At the height of the pandemic, the care centres have been struggling to find beds. Each centre requires 50 beds and when a patient is released from the centre, their mattress is destroyed for safety reasons. “I thought, that’s a lot of mattresses,” says Menon.

Her solution was to collect waste plastic from factories that make Personal Protective Equipment (PPE). India has become the second biggest PPE producer in the world, making items such as masks, gloves and clothing. A lot of plastic is left over after production. Menon has developed a way of using this material to make mattresses. She ties long strips of it into plaits, which look similar to ropes. The plaits are then laid out together and tied to each other. The result is a light, washable mattress for just 300 rupees (£3). In India, hospital beds usually cost twice that much. It also benefits the environment.

Menon’s idea for making mattresses came when she saw homeless children sleeping in the street. She wanted to help and realised she could use waste material from her friend's fashion house to make mattresses for them.

As well as the Covid centres, Menon is also providing mattresses to homeless charities. She believes "everyone deserves a good night's sleep."