[labnetwork] Inquiry about any disposable glove recycling programs currently implemented by any labs
Rachel Schoeppner
rlschoeppner at ucsb.edu
Tue Jan 18 17:06:45 EST 2022
Hi Aimee, Tatiana, and Michael,
Thanks so much for the discussions and food for thought! I finally caught up on the emails. I agree that gloves in general are not easily recycled and I suppose the correct term would more be “down-cycled”. There are specialty programs here in the US and I think in the UK as well... (TerraCycle and RightCycle in particular) that processes the gloves into small pellets that then get used as fillers for other products… so diverting them out of the landfill at least. They are generally expensive and so has been a hinderance for many companies and universities in the past. I have found a few departments at universities in my research that has developed a program similar to one that I would love to start here at UCSB. I am not sure if their programs are still going strong or if the cost of upkeep has made it prohibitive.
I fully support the idea of banding together and encouraging making these programs the norm rather than the exception because they are cost prohibitive. It is such an important initiative and one I would be very happy to be a part of! I know there is a list of Universities that support Green Labs (https://www.labconscious.com/green-lab-groups <https://www.labconscious.com/green-lab-groups>) that are all working on different aspects within their individual departments or universities (I believe this is what you were talking about, Aimee). I would really like to get at least this down-cycling of the disposable gloves to be a university-wide endeavor but figuring out where to start is often the challenge!
If anyone wants to have a brainstorming session on best practices to get programs like this going, I would be very interested in being involved as well!
All the best,
Rachel
—
Rachel Schoeppner, Ph.D
Nanostructure Cleanroom Facility Manager
California NanoSystems Institute (CNSI)
University of California, Santa Barbara
rlschoeppner at ucsb.edu <mailto:rlschoeppner at ucsb.edu>
rachel at cnsi.ucsb.edu <mailto:rachel at cnsi.ucsb.edu>
(805)893-2296
> On Jan 18, 2022, at 6:23 AM, Price, Aimee <price.798 at osu.edu> wrote:
>
>
> Hi Tatiana,
> If you all start a sustainability group, I’d love to be involved. My lab worked with our university’s sustainability organization to become the first user group on campus to get their Green Lab certification. Some of the considerations are things that I hadn’t thought of, some didn’t apply to the cleanroom specifically, like sash locations on hoods. However, some were easy to implement like rinsing and recycling acid/base/oxidizer bottles and contacting suppliers about reusing their packing materials etc.
>
> Best of luck with this initiative.
>
> Aimee
> From: labnetwork <labnetwork-bounces at mtl.mit.edu> On Behalf Of Tatiana Pinedo Rivera
> Sent: Tuesday, January 18, 2022 1:29 AM
> To: Michael Yakimov <yakimom at sunypoly.edu>
> Cc: labnetwork at mtl.mit.edu
> Subject: Re: [labnetwork] Inquiry about any disposable glove recycling programs currently implemented by any labs
>
> Absolutely Michael,
> Our gloves are nitrile gloves (the white cleanroom type in the cleanroom (from OnBoard Solutions) and blue in the non-cleanroom labs (from MediFlex)).
> Thank you for the tip about Kimberly-Clark, they do not supply our cleanroom gloves, but I can still contact them.
>
> You actually gave me the idea of contacting my local glove suppliers. Let's see what their response is. Actually it might be a really good idea to contact all our consumable suppliers and force them to implement programs to collect waste and do something useful with it. If all the cleanroom facilities and other manufacturing facilities, University labs, etc start to do this, there is going to be a point where these companies might actually do something about this issue either because they will find a financial benefit to do it or hopefully out of a sense of environmental responsibility.
>
> Michael, can I ask you if your facility is already part of a sustainability program? Would you and your management consider starting one?
>
> If anyone is interested in having an informal meeting about sustainability in cleanrooms and other similar facilities, please get in touch to organise one. Or if such a meeting already exists, please share the invitation ;)
>
> Cheers from Australia!
>
> Tatiana Pinedo Rivera, PhD
> Nanolithography and Characterisation Team Leader
> Senior Process Engineer
>
> Melbourne Centre for Nanofabrication
> ANFF Victoria
> 151 Wellington Road, Clayton VIC 3168 Australia
>
> P: +61 (0)3 9905 9660
> E: tatiana.pinedo at nanomelbourne.com <mailto:tatiana.pinedo at nanomelbourne.com>
> W: http://nanomelbourne.com <https://urldefense.com/v3/__http:/nanomelbourne.com__;!!KGKeukY!goGcRJ6LtbKGGlb_juUkTMReQ09CaxU7XN0vEOCeXsaA6BT3TemQjIGGh_K3ejx6Zlc$>
>
>
>
>
> On Mon, 17 Jan 2022 at 12:36, Michael Yakimov <yakimom at sunypoly.edu <mailto:yakimom at sunypoly.edu>> wrote:
> You may want to clarify what kind of gloves are you using.
> My impression that PVC cannot really get recycled, so is latex. For nitrile gloves, Kimberly-Clark purportedly has a recycling program which their customers can participate.
>
> Get Outlook for Android <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/aka.ms/AAb9ysg__;!!KGKeukY!goGcRJ6LtbKGGlb_juUkTMReQ09CaxU7XN0vEOCeXsaA6BT3TemQjIGGh_K3L0ojwmc$>
> From: labnetwork <labnetwork-bounces at mtl.mit.edu <mailto:labnetwork-bounces at mtl.mit.edu>> on behalf of Tatiana Pinedo Rivera <tatiana.pinedo at monash.edu <mailto:tatiana.pinedo at monash.edu>>
> Sent: Sunday, January 16, 2022 7:04:46 PM
> To: Rachel Schoeppner <rlschoeppner at ucsb.edu <mailto:rlschoeppner at ucsb.edu>>
> Cc: labnetwork at mtl.mit.edu <mailto:labnetwork at mtl.mit.edu> <labnetwork at mtl.mit.edu <mailto:labnetwork at mtl.mit.edu>>
> Subject: Re: [labnetwork] Inquiry about any disposable glove recycling programs currently implemented by any labs
>
> Dear Rachel,
>
> Sorry I do not have an answer for you. But we at the Melbourne Centre for Nanofabrication, one of the Australian National Fabrication Facility centres are extremely interested in setting up a similar program. We have a quite active Green Impact Team and we have been trying to make our cleanroom slightly less wasteful (for instance, we are encouraging reuse of epaks and wafer/sample carriers where possible (they were previously all going to the bin after one use), we are also collecting Silicon waste for the first time (previously it was all going to the landfill)).
>
> We recently started to collect our lab (packaging) soft plastic waste but the University we are affiliated to (Monash University) can only collect soft-plastic (LDPE) of very high quality, uncontaminated, not-dyed (only transparent), it should be slightly stretchable before it rips and should not make a crinkly noise when scrunched, no tape, no labels...
>
> For our "domestic" soft-plastic collection, which we also started collecting in the kitchen area, rules are much more flexible and thankfully we in Australia have the RedCycle program which collects all sorts of soft plastics from plastic bags to candy and chips wrappers. I wonder whether they might be able to help.
>
> Ideally we would like to start collecting our disposable cleanroom overshoes which are made out of a crinkly blue plastic and gloves, similar to you, we produce large amounts of this type of waste.
>
> Of course things are a bit different here in Australia, but if you have received responses regarding this topic, could you please let me know?
> If you have implemented other things in the cleanroom to make your workplace a bit more sustainable, would you mind sharing some ideas? I have been thinking for a while that we should join a group of cleanroom (or other manufacturing) facilities who have all embraced (or are trying to) a sustainable approach, if such a group exists, if it doesn't we should start one!
>
> Thanks in advance,
>
> Tatiana
>
> Tatiana Pinedo Rivera, PhD
> Nanolithography and Characterisation Team Leader
> Senior Process Engineer
>
> Melbourne Centre for Nanofabrication
> ANFF Victoria
> 151 Wellington Road, Clayton VIC 3168 Australia
>
> P: +61 (0)3 9905 9660
> E: tatiana.pinedo at nanomelbourne.com <mailto:tatiana.pinedo at nanomelbourne.com>
> W: http://nanomelbourne.com <https://urldefense.com/v3/__http:/nanomelbourne.com__;!!KGKeukY!goGcRJ6LtbKGGlb_juUkTMReQ09CaxU7XN0vEOCeXsaA6BT3TemQjIGGh_K3ejx6Zlc$>
>
>
>
>
> On Tue, 11 Jan 2022 at 09:23, Rachel Schoeppner <rlschoeppner at ucsb.edu <mailto:rlschoeppner at ucsb.edu>> wrote:
> Good Afternoon and Happy Monday!
>
>
> I am looking into developing a recycling program for uncontaminated disposable gloves that my facility goes through in abundant quantities, with the eventual goal of expanding to similar labs on campus. It has become glaringly obvious that our facility, and ones like ours, use a vast number of gloves that just end up in a landfill to decompose over the course of many years to decades. I am hoping to start working to divert this waste stream and recycle as many gloves as we can by starting a disposable glove recycling program here at UCSB.
>
>
>
> So as I am starting to gather data and more information about the best way to go about this, I was wondering if any of your labs have looked into similar initiatives that have been or are currently successful. If so, I would be very interested to know how these programs were started, what companies you might go through for the recycling since most public recycling centers do not process these types of plastics, and any ideas for how to make the program financially viable (break-even, not turn a profit) rather than a drain on resources, which could lead to the eventual failure of the program.
>
>
>
> Thanks so much for your time!
>
>
>
> All the best,
>
>
> Rachel
>
>
> —
>
> Rachel Schoeppner, Ph.D
>
> Nanostructure Cleanroom Facility Manager
> California NanoSystems Institute (CNSI)
> University of California, Santa Barbara
> rlschoeppner at ucsb.edu <mailto:rlschoeppner at ucsb.edu>
> rachel at cnsi.ucsb.edu <mailto:rachel at cnsi.ucsb.edu>
> (805)893-2296
>
>
>
>
>
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