No, the filter from your air purifier can’t be recycled

A six-month-old baby rests near an air purifier at her residence in New Delhi. Most analysts predict annual sales growth will remain in the double digits after Covid-19 has abated. That goes for the US, which has long been the industry’s largest market, but also for such places as India, South Korea, and Mexico, where rising wealth and health concerns are spurring purchases. — AFP

Even before the pandemic, air purifiers were among the most sought-after household appliances. Once governments acknowledged in mid-2020 that the coronavirus could remain in the air for hours, manufacturers struggled to meet demand.

As other factories laid off staff, air-purifier maker RGF Environmental Group in Florida more than tripled its workforce, from 140 to 500 people. In Indonesia, sales of Sharp Corp’s “plasmacluster” purifiers jumped, from about 3,000 units a month pre-virus to almost 13,000 by January 2021.