In personal protective equipment (PPE), Disposable Gloves are prominent for their widespread use in various industries, including healthcare, food service, and manufacturing. However, alongside their utility, these gloves also present significant environmental challenges. This blog post delves into the environmental impact of disposable gloves, focusing on their biodegradation time and the ecological footprint of their production processes.
Disposable gloves, predominantly made from materials like latex, nitrile, and vinyl, pose a substantial challenge in terms of biodegradability.
Latex Gloves : Though natural rubber latex gloves are derived from a renewable resource, the rubber tree, they are not readily biodegradable. In landfill conditions, latex gloves can take anywhere from decades to over a century to fully decompose. This prolonged decomposition process contributes to landfill overcrowding and environmental pollution.
Nitrile Gloves :, known for their durability and resistance to chemicals, are a synthetic product made from petroleum-based materials. These gloves can take even longer than latex to break down, with estimates ranging from several decades to hundreds of years in a landfill environment.
Vinyl Gloves :, made from polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and plasticisers, are among the least biodegradable options. They can persist in the environment for an exceedingly long period, potentially up to a thousand years, due to the resilient nature of PVC.
The Impact on the Environment
The environmental impact of disposable gloves extends beyond their disposal. The production processes themselves carry significant ecological footprints.
Resource Consumption: The manufacturing of disposable gloves, especially synthetic varieties like nitrile and vinyl, is resource-intensive. It relies heavily on non-renewable resources like petroleum and natural gas, contributing to the depletion of these resources.
Greenhouse Gas Emissions: The production process, particularly for synthetic gloves, is associated with substantial greenhouse gas emissions. These emissions contribute to climate change and have a lasting impact on global warming.
Chemical Usage and Pollution: The production of disposable gloves, especially synthetic ones, involves the use of various chemicals. These chemicals can lead to environmental pollution if not managed properly, affecting soil and water quality.
Moving Towards Sustainability
To mitigate the environmental impact, there is an increasing push towards sustainable alternatives and practices:
Recycling Initiatives: Programmes to recycle disposable gloves are emerging, though they face challenges due to contamination and the mix of materials used in glove production.
Reduced Use and Reusability: Encouraging reduced use of disposable gloves where possible and exploring reusable options can significantly lessen environmental impact.
What is available to you now?
There is now a new glove on the market which means the use of disposable gloves can go on. The new Disposable Gloves from Traffi : emphasise the environmental benefits of their new tri-polymer blend disposable glove, TD01 . This innovative product is designed to be a more sustainable alternative to traditional nitrile gloves whilst retaining the same quality and a non-biodegradable disposable glove.
Biodegradability: Traffi biodegradable gloves are proven to biodegrade far faster than other biodegradable nitrile gloves on the market. Thanks to their unique tri-polymer structure, they degrade by 82% in as little as 90 days, compared to traditional nitrile gloves which can take over 100 years to decompose in landfills.
Key Features: The gloves offer an increase in stretch and comfort, reducing hand fatigue. They are cooler to the skin due to the new 3TP technology and provide a more comfortable, closer fit than standard nitrile gloves, even after repeated stretching. The gloves are food-approved, skin-friendly, dermatologically approved, and made with a higher content of sustainably produced raw material from Sri Lanka, ensuring stable pricing and a lower carbon footprint in production.
Industrial Composting: The gloves are suitable for industrial composting, a multi-step, closely monitored process involving measured inputs of water, air, carbon, and nitrogen-rich materials. Industrial composting facilities optimise conditions like material size, temperature, and oxygen levels to ensure rapid biodegradation of organic material and produce high-quality, toxin-free compost.
Which glove would be best for you?
Here at Safeguru, we are currently stocking the TD01 and TD04 biodegradable gloves by Traffi.
The TD01 is recommended for use in Food, Pharmaceutical, Laboratory, Mechanical and general use. Meets EN374-1,2,4 & 5, EN455 Part 1,2 & 3. EN1186/Regulation EU 10/2011 (Food approved).
The TD04 is recommended for use in Food, Pharmaceutical, Laboratory and general use.
Meets EN374-1,2,4 & 5, EN455 Part 1,2 & 3. EN1186/Regulation EU 10/2011 (Food approved). ASTM D 5526.
Please get in touch on 01422 774376 to discuss your use of disposable gloves to make sure you are getting the protection required for the job at hand.
Are you looking to better the environment in your workplace? Make these gloves the start (or part) of your path to a carbon-neutral workplace.