Good afternoon,

We have several labs that want to participate in glove recycling.  These are nitrile gloves that the supplier intends to be used for work with chemicals (glove permeation data available) with (at most) minor amounts of chemicals on them ('splash' amounts rather than immersion)--most likely have nothing on them.  The recycling companies say they don't care what's on them, it's all good--one even says acid, biologicals, it's all fine.

I can make an argument against recycling gloves used in recombinant DNA or BSL-2 work, but with the 'we'll gloves with anything on them' I am having trouble finding a reason to say 'NO!' to ardent recycling supporters who use chemicals, particularly small amounts of flammable and dilute corrosive chemicals.  

I'd like to know if other institutions are sending gloves to recycling vendors--do you approve this lab by lab, are my concerns about contamination issues unwarranted, etc?  

Many thanks,

Margaret

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Margaret A. Rakas, Ph.D.
Lab Safety & Compliance Director
Clark Science Center
413-585-3877 (p)

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