Toner Plastics Pivots Production Focus to Elastics for DIY Face Masks

Toner Plastics employees William Alvarado and Ramon Mazariegos produce 3D printing filament for face shields and elastic straps for face masks.

COVID-19 has made a tremendous impact on businesses and the economy at large. This uncertainty has required us to shift personal lifestyles and business operations, making social distancing and the use of face masks the new norm.

Toner Plastics supplied elastic for volunteers creating masks

Toner Plastics has pivoted its production towards supporting the fight against COVID-19. Toner Plastics produces face mask elastic for N95 masks made under a DX contract (the highest national priority) with the US Government and is helping several startup companies and volunteer groups to produce face masks.

Bag of mask elastic available on Amazon and TonerCrafts.com

Throughout the pandemic, Toner Plastics has donated tens of thousands of masks worth of elastic to local volunteer organizations. Through its vast volunteer network, Toner Plastics learned how much individuals liked working with their face mask elastics and wanted to make it nationally available to make a larger impact in supporting the fight against COVID-19.

The face mask shortage has resulted in a rise in DIY crafters making face masks. Since March, Wal-Mart’s fabrics and sewing department has been stocked out of materials used for making DIY masks. The majority of ¼” sewing elastic is made in China and is out of stock everywhere because supplies cannot keep up with the demand.

Spool of mask elastic available at Walmart

Toner Plastics offered Walmart a way to get the product onto the empty store shelves and into their web store to expand access to affordable mask-making materials for the DIY community. The initial Walmart commitment was received in late April for 130,000 pieces, and Toner began producing the new product a week later.

Face mask elastics begin shipping the week of May 11th and is set to arrive in stores the week of May 25. Each product is 15 ft of premium grade mask elastic wound onto a spool, enough to make 15 masks. Elastics will retail for $2.97.

Toner-made mask elastic is available on TonerCrafts.com and Amazon. Mask makers can buy a bag of elastic, enough to make 50 masks, for $4.99.