According to figures from Great Ormond Street Hospital, around 1.4 billion pairs of disposable gloves are used each year across NHS services.  It’s important to understand that these figures were released pre-Covid19 back in July 2019. 

To put that into context that was just over 2,663 pairs of gloves being used each minute in the UK alone, with a yearly weight of 3.04 tonnes of materials per year.  But this is only part of the full picture, with further private clinics and services adding to these numbers.

The NHS uses a mix of vinyl, latex and nitrile gloves but have you ever considered the amount of time that it takes for a pair of these gloves to decompose? 

Synthetic nitrile, latex and nitrile gloves can take decades to biodegrade; and with most being treated as ‘offensive’ or ‘clinical waste’ depending on the original use.  So, it is therefore difficult to ascertain what proportion of these 1.4 billion pairs of gloves end up being either incinerated or diverted to ‘deep landfill’.

Either way, with any items taking decades to decompose and being transferred to deep landfill, it is clear that alternatives need to be found to counterbalance these effects on our environment.

However, researchers from Cranfield University in partnership with Meditech Gloves, may have found an innovative natural rubber alternative that not only biodegrades 100 times faster than their synthetic cousins; but also is able to utilise atmospheric CO₂ to help contribute to net zero carbon efforts.

But what about those who experience a range of reactions from conventional latex?  With reactions ranging from mild skin allergies to severe anaphylaxis, Great Ormond Street Hospital anticipate that around 5% of the UK population have some sort of allergy to conventional latex.  Currently these issues are overcome by substituting latex with Nitrile gloves which like their latex counterparts take decades to decompose.

The new natural latex gloves being developed are produced using a special formulation of rubber latex which removes the proteins that cause various skin allergies.  Therefore, this new formulation of natural latex can remove this problem and reintroduce natural, sustainable raw latex to the industry on a mass scale.  This new development seems to tick all boxes for our future demands and sees the new natural latex gloves being more sustainable, biodegradable and protein-free.

Meditech Gloves’ Company President, Dr Effendi Tenang recently stated: “We are aiming to become a leader in the sustainable production of degradable, protein-free, natural rubber gloves, contributing to the reduction of CO2 and becoming a more efficient producer of highest quality medical grade gloves, to support a greener future to benefit everyone.”

Initial research from Cranfield University has found that time and energy savings of up to 50% can be achieved with this revised manufacturing process, added to this the adaptation to the formulation of the latex in order to neutralise the naturally occurring proteins within the original natural latex.

Surely this development can be seen as a win-win, not only for supporting our healthcare workers and patients alike but also for our environment and future generations to come. 

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Carrie Plummer - Editor & Content Manager