As the disposable respirator market and demand has grown so quickly, with it so has the amount of waste sent to landfill. Every industry that relied on respiratory protection before the pandemic and since now has a social responsibility to do better and make more sustainable choices.  The bonus?  Moving away from disposable respirators will not only lessen your environmental impact but shifting to reusable respirators will prove a huge cost savings.

The global disposable respirator marketing size was USD 6.31 billion in 2020 and experienced an uptick of 223.9% due to the pandemic.   The demand for N95 respirators has grown due to COVID specifically in healthcare and food and beverage industry for maintaining hygiene and safety standards.  According to Fortune Business Insights (1) the disposable respirator market top industries include transportation, energy, manufacturing, construction, healthcare, and others.

Respirators are crucial PPE that have always been important to protect workers in industries such as construction and manufacturing or any industry that involves the risk of inhaling harmful particles which can cause serious lifetime damage such as dust particles, lead dust, silica, asbestos, etc. The pandemic has only heightened the demand for N95 level (or better) protection and made it a household term. But according to experts (2), the virus is not going away, nor will the need for respirators.

Even with mask mandates lifting throughout most of Canada and the US, the need for effective respiratory protection will remain.  Because the US and Canada have stringent workplace safety standards which requires companies to provide appropriate respirator protection equipment to employees where necessary, they have will continue to hold the dominate share of the disposable respirator market over 2021-2028 (USD 2.10 billion) (1).

As one of the world’s largest manufacturing sectors, China houses the greatest volume of PPE and the majority of which being googles, medical masks and disposable respirators.  Like in 2020 at the start of the pandemic, China’s lockdowns will once again wreak havoc on inflation and the supply chain.

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