Tackling cotton glove waste in the packaging industry
With the current focus on recycling and reducing waste in the production of packaging materials, many packaging suppliers neglect the environmental impact of items used in the production of packaging materials, with cotton gloves being a case in point.
Cotton gloves are used in a wide variety of applications across the packaging industry. They are a cheap and effective way of protecting employee’s hands as they work with delicate items, and also protecting the items themselves from being marked or damaged when handled.
However, the production of cotton gloves can be environmentally harmful due to the various bleaches and chemicals involved in their manufacture, and gloves can wear out relatively quickly, making cotton gloves a significant element of a company’s carbon footprint.
Many packaging companies are now addressing this issue, and attempting to cut back on the amount of wastage and environmental damage that result from the use of cotton gloves.
One simple measure is to use ambidextrous reversible gloves. This effectively doubles the lifespan of the gloves, as, once they start to wear out on one side, the hands can be switched until the other side wears out. Also, should one glove rip or tear, only one glove is needed to replace it rather than another full pair.
Also, some companies have switched to unbleached gloves in order to cut down on harmful chemicals in the glove production process. Although unbleached gloves do not show up dirt to readily, in applications where this is not an issue they can be a viable alternative to bleached white gloves.
