If your employees use gloves during oil-related manufacturing processes, their gloves become contaminated after at least one use. You shouldn’t use oily gloves again, so it’s best to perform proper disposal of gloves once your employees use them. In fact, you should dispose of all personal protective equipment (PPE) properly. But what does proper glove recycling? Let’s go over used gloves disposal, what it requires, and how you can reduce your glove disposal costs.
What Does Glove Disposal Involve?
Glove disposal involves removing gloves from your hands in ways that reduce hazardous or infectious waste. When you remove your gloves, it’s best to peel them away from your skin and turn the gloves inside out as you take them off. This process works best for nitrile and latex gloves, but it also works for other disposable glove types.
Once you take the gloves off, safely dispose of them by putting them in a trash bin immediately. It’s important to determine what type of waste your gloves qualify as before you dispose of them. If your gloves touch certain fluids, they could qualify as hazardous waste. You need to take extra precautions with hazardous waste disposal. For example, if you work in the automotive or manufacturing industry, you may work with used oil that can get on your gloves. The EPA has specific definitions for used oil and classifies it as hazardous waste. Look up how the EPA and your state and local governments want you to dispose of PPE covered in used oil and follow those guidelines.
Does Glove Disposal Offer Any Benefits?
Not really. Disposable gloves create PPE waste that ends up in landfills. They also increase the amount of general waste that comes from your facility, which could harm the environment in the long run. The waste disposal process costs lots of money that you could put towards other parts of your business by reducing your facility’s waste stream. Think about it: you have to pay for new disposable gloves every time you use all of the gloves in your facility. You also have to pay for disposal services to limit the spread of hazardous waste, and getting rid of the gloves costs time and labor that could be spent on your business’s more important functions. Alternatives to this costly process will reduce these expenses.
What Types of Disposal Alternatives Should You Use?
The best alternative to expensive glove disposal is using reusable PPE in your facility. Once you switch to reusable gloves, partner with a PPE recycling company like Closed Loop. We collect and launder gloves and other PPE to remove all types of waste. You get more mileage out of reusable gloves for lower costs than you do with disposable ones.