How do I calculate the carbon footprint of a surgical mask?
Add the spunbond and meltblown polypropylene layers, nose wire and ear loops per mask with supplier figures. Add the mask machine electricity and packing, then divide by masks packed. Polypropylene fabric is most of the material.
Materials
- Spunbond and meltblown polypropylene nonwoven.
- Nose wire and elastic ear loops.
- Boxes and cartons.
Process
- Automatic mask machines with ultrasonic welding.
- Ear loop welding.
- Packing.
Per piece
Report per mask and per box of fifty. Layers and fabric GSM decide most of the material.
Worked example: surgical mask unit per piece (one month)
- Electricity: 10,000 kWh x 0.710 = 7,100 kg CO2
- Masks packed: 3,000,000
- Plant total: 7,100 / 3,000,000 = 0.00237 kg CO2 per piece
- Add nonwoven fabric and loops for the full figure
Inputs are illustrative; use your own bills and production records.
What Senseible does here
Senseible reads the plant's electricity bills (CEA grid factor 0.710 kg CO2 per kWh, CO2 Baseline Database version 21.0) and fuel invoices (IPCC 2006 defaults) into a fingerprinted Scope 1 and 2 record, the plant-level input to a per-unit figure. Bought-in materials go to the supplier evidence trail; product reports are self-declared drafts.
- Product carbon footprint calculator
- Non-woven bag footprint
- Surgical gloves footprint
- Chemical industry
Sources: GHG Protocol Product Standard, ISO 14067:2018, Carbon footprint of products (iso.org), IPCC 2006 Guidelines, Volume 2 Energy (fuel defaults), CEA CO2 Baseline Database, version 21.0
Last reviewed 2026-10-20.