Waste diversion is an essential goal for labs and cleanrooms, as well as virtually every other kind of facility. It can be achieved through a variety of ways, such as source reduction, reuse, composting and recycling.
In 2014, more than 89 million tons of municipal solid waste were recycled and composted, providing an annual reduction of over 181 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions, comparable to the annual emissions from over 38 million passenger cars, according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
The benefits of recycling are well known:
- Reduces the amount of waste sent to landfills and incinerators
- Conserves natural resources such as timber, water and minerals
- Prevents pollution by reducing the need to collect new raw materials
- Saves energy
- Reduces greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to global climate change
- Helps sustain the environment for future generations
As recycling becomes the norm, rather than the exception, in labs and cleanrooms, facilities are getting pretty good at recycling primary commodities such as cardboard, paper, plastic and aluminum.
But to get to a higher level of diversion and potentially reach the holy grail of zero waste, other non-traditional or secondary commodities must also be diverted from landfill, and recycled and repurposed into usable products and durable goods.
Glove and apparel recycling is a relatively new form of recycling that is beginning to gain traction in lab and cleanroom settings. In 2011, Kimberly-Clark Professional launched The RightCycle Program, the first large-scale recycling effort for non-hazardous lab and cleanroom waste. Since then, the program has diverted more than 350 tons of waste from landfill.
RightCycle removes gloves, masks, garments, shoe covers and other apparel accessories from the waste stream. The products are collected and shipped to domestic recycling centers, where they are turned into nitrile pellets that are then used to create eco-responsible consumer products and durable goods.
As long as gloves, garments and accessories (such as masks, hoods, shoe covers and hairnets) do not contain bio-hazardous materials, they can be safely recycled and turned into items such as: lawn furniture, flowerpots and planters, shelving, totes and storage bins.
It all adds up
Gloves are ubiquitous in labs and cleanrooms, and workers can go through several pairs in the course of a day. While this is necessary to protect both the worker and the process, the amount of waste can add up.
Consider these statistics:
- One university estimated that nearly 30 percent of its waste stream came from laboratory and research buildings.
- A University of Washington lab waste audit found that 22 percent of its research waste consisted of nitrile gloves.
- A University of California Santa Cruz (UCSC) laboratory waste assessment found that nitrile gloves made up a majority of laboratory waste destined for landfill.
Because of this, many labs are participating in The RightCycle Program. The environmental benefits of glove and apparel recycling programs are evident. They take commonly used and essential lab and cleanroom products out of the solid waste stream, significantly reducing waste generation.
To read the full story, visit http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/article/2017/04/how-take-recycling-next-level.