Masks have been a must-have accessory for the last two-and-a-half years but what happens to them once they are disposed of?

The majority of the ones made in New Zealand are made of polypropelene plastic that gets sent offshore or to landfill.

The country's largest mask manufacturer Meo is trying to change that.

"So we launched an initiative to invite members of the public and our customers to send their used face masks back to us and we then group everything together and send it off to our partner who then ... recycle that properly," director Kenneth Leong said.

They are taking any brand of used mask, planning to ramp things up with schools, hospitals and businesses already interested.

"Hopefully we will see a snowball effect, we will have other companies come on board and larger retailers, larger shopping centres, come on board and provide collection points for people to dispose of these masks properly and then have them recycled," Leong said.

The recycling happened in Waiuku at Future Posts, they have been recycling plastics destined for landfill and turning them into fence posts for the last four years.

They recycle just under 300 tonnes of plastic a month, last year they added masks to the list.

Director Jerome Wenzlick explained the process from mask to post.  

"We chip it up into tiny little bits, mix it together into a recipe... we melt the plastic, so we heat it up to around 220 degrees and that gets forced into a mould the shape of a post be it round or square or in between."

Once the fence posts have been made, they are perfectly safe for all users from beaches to gardens.

The posts are used worldwide for different projects, mostly in farming.

They are getting five to six tonnes a month of masks, but with two other factories on the way in Blenheim and Feilding they have capacity for three times that.

"We leave them for at least a month just so if there is anything in there, it's gone," Wenzlick said.

All of the recycling is done without any support from council or the government, something both companies would like to see change.

Auckland Council general manager of waste solutions Parul Sood said it was not that simple when it came to recycling masks on a larger scale.

"It's not that easy for us to collect them through any of our systems, so it will have to be places where people visit and then if you're wearing a mask, would you take it off right then, or would you collect it at home and then bring it to or drop off."

Instead she suggested people should try for reusable masks and if that was not possible dispose of them properly.

To embed this content on your own webpage, cut and paste the following:

<iframe src="https://www.rnz.co.nz/audio/remote-player?id=2018860855" width="100%" frameborder="0" height="62px"></iframe>

for easy access to all your favourite programmes