Are Nitrile Gloves Recyclable?

As scientists, we are acutely aware of the escalating climate crisis and the devastating impact of unfettered natural resource consumption on our planet. Yet awareness alone is no longer enough. Laboratories are among the most resource-intensive environments, consuming up to ten times more energy and five times more water than typical office spaces. Labs also generate an outsized share of single-use product waste. 

Personal protective equipment (PPE), especially nitrile gloves, are crucial for ensuring safety and precision. However, these gloves are also one of the most overlooked contributors to lab waste. Used once and discarded, they pile up in landfills by the billions.

The Tragedy of Lab Waste

Laboratories worldwide generate an estimated 5.5 million tons of plastic waste annually, primarily from single-use items like pipette tips and nitrile gloves. Nitrile gloves alone can constitute nearly a quarter of a lab's landfill waste. This extensive use of disposable products contributes significantly to the biotech and pharmaceutical industry's carbon footprint, which amounts to over 200 million tonnes of CO₂ emissions yearly. 

Alarmingly, 40% of these emissions stem from the production and disposal of single-use items such as gloves, PPE, and pipette tip boxes. And while these items are essential, their environmental footprint doesn’t end after disposal. Most are incinerated or tossed in landfills, where they can take over a century to degrade, breaking down into harmful microplastics that leach into ecosystems. On top of that, producing nitrile gloves is a carbon-intensive process, releasing approximately five pounds of CO₂ for every pound manufactured.

Despite growing awareness of the environmental impact of single-use lab products, effective recycling solutions for items like nitrile gloves have been limited. The very properties that make these gloves indispensable, like their durability, chemical resistance, and flexibility, also render them difficult to recycle through traditional means. 

Challenges with Recycling Nitrile Gloves 

There are several challenges associated with recycling nitrile gloves, one of which is the issue of front-end separation and disposal. After use, particularly in laboratory or clinical environments, nitrile gloves are frequently assumed to be contaminated and classified as hazardous or biohazardous waste. Oftentimes, however, these gloves are unsoiled but disposed of in hazardous and/or biohazardous waste receptacles.

The material composition of nitrile gloves adds another layer of complexity. Nitrile is a synthetic rubber that undergoes vulcanization, a chemical process that transforms it into a thermoset material. Unlike thermoplastics, which can be melted and remolded, thermosets cannot be reprocessed using traditional mechanical recycling methods. This inherent property of vulcanized nitrile necessitates alternative approaches to recycling and repurposing.

Are Nitrile Gloves Recyclable? Yes, with Polycarbin

Recognizing these challenges, Polycarbin developed a transparent and evidence-based recycling program for nitrile gloves. This approach offers significant carbon emission reduction by replacing carbon-intensive binding agents like polyurethane, making downstream recycling processes, such as tire recycling, significantly more efficient.

These recycled rubber feedstocks are commonly repurposed into products like floor mats, construction barriers, and mud flaps for the automotive industry. In doing so, they help displace virgin fossil-derived rubber and even carbon-intensive materials like cement. 

How Our Nitrile Glove Recycling Works:

• Implementation & Training: Polycarbin’s Gamma Carbin™ recycling program for nitrile gloves was built by scientists for scientists. Polycarbin’s team provides training, education and implements front-end diversion protocols to collect a clean stream of recyclable nitrile gloves.

• Brand-Agnostic Glove Collection: Participating labs receive a Gamma Carbin™, a container designed for collecting used nitrile gloves of any brand. This simple collection process eliminates the need for sorting or limiting yourself to a single brand.

• Easy Bin Returns: Once full, labs seal and ship the container back using a prepaid return shipping label, greatly simplifying logistics and reducing their volume of landfill waste output.

• Transparent Recycling Process: The collected gloves are processed and used to make new durable products, like construction cone bases, automotive mud flaps, and rubber flooring. 

• Verified Data Through the Carbin Counter™: Labs monitor their real-time impact with our evidence-based sustainability metrics, including total gloves recycled and CO₂ emissions avoided. Your team can then use this data for ESG reporting, internal sustainability tracking, and grant applications.

While this is not a Closed-Loop recycling program similar to our work with rigid plastics and PPE, this program has clear and tangible environmental benefits. It’s also underpinned by the same commitment to transparency and rigor that defines all of Polycarbin's sustainability efforts.

Ready to Join Our Circular Economy? 

When you partner with Polycarbin for glove recycling, you do more than just recycle gloves. You’re reshaping the future of scientific research. Imagine the impact we can have together, reducing waste, cutting emissions, and building a circular economy. Contact us today so your lab can make science more sustainable!