Sustainability

This is a request for Sejal,

Hello, I work for Historic England archive and we are currently proposing to start a gloves recycling scheme at work to the facility management team, but they are very reluctant and now I am collecting more information about both glove recycling schemes and biodegradable gloves.
Would you mind sharing a PDF fie of your thesis on documents section of this discussion please? Alternatively, I'm happy to give you my email address, so you can send it directly.
Thank you very much for your help.

Best wishes,
Saya Miles; Lead Conservator, Historic England Archive

Hi All

I am currently using the Uniglove Biotouch nitrile gloves but I have to say I don't find them to be particularly durable and the fit doesn't last well. As a clock repairer I suppose I do put them through some comparably rigourous manual handling exercises, so they might do better in lighter-wear applications. I used to use these: https://www.topglove.com/glove-product/biogreentm-biodegradable-nitrile-powder-free-glove I thought they were great, hardwearing with a really good fit and feel, and they are comparatively cheaper than other biodegradable options. My usual supplier stopped stocking them and I have found them a bit trickier to find, though this thread has reignited my search and I have just found that RS-Solutions are stocking them.

Best,
Dale

Hi Sarah!
I did some research on biodegradable gloves as a part of my Masters' thesis.
Uniglove Biotouch nitrile gloves are 90% biodegradable after 1.5 years and are suitable to use with chemicals including acetone (EN standards 374-1 and EN 374-5)

There are two main considerations/negatives to using biodegradable gloves. The first being that the majority have not been Oddy Tested which should just be a consideration in the long term. The other concern my institution had was that we would buy our gloves in bulk and worried that they would start to degrade in storage before we even had a chance to use them.

Hope that helps!
Best,
Sejal

Hi Sarah,
I've not used these myself but they might suit your needs. You would need to make sure that the breakthrough times are suitable for the solvents you use as I've heard that the times are slightly less than traditional nitrile gloves.
https://www.showagroup.com/eu-en/shop/6110pf
Best,
Tal

Hello! I am an Assistant Conservator at London Met Archives and the Green Group Lead. In the studio we have been trialling a range of biodegradable gloves. I'm not sure what you're using them for but the ones we get are very durable, have a nice feel and if you're using them for something like basic store cleaning etc they can be washed and used multiple times with no issues. We have not done any duress tests using chemicals at the moment. We get ours from a company called Greenhams and get the "SW S6 Powerform Teal Nitrile Powder-Free EcoTek Biodegradable Disposable Gloves" brand. If you're looking to recycle there are also a couple of initiatives for that as well. Tetracycle offers a glove recycling program. RE factory also have the same thing but for biodegradable gloves. Biodegradable gloves can be a bit of a false advertisement in the UK as you need a special facility to break down the material so the recycling program for these ensures they go to the right processing plant. I hope this helps!

Alex