While some entrepreneurs and businesses are focused on developing reusable PPE, which can help companies manage shortages and fluctuating prices in the global supply chain, others are finding ways to turn single-use PPE into everything from bricks to toolboxes.
Kimberly-Clark’s RightCycle Program helps customers collect previously hard-to-recycle items—such as nitrile gloves, apparel items, safety eyewear and respirators—and have them turned into new consumer goods like flowerpots, patio furniture and plastic shelving. Since its launch in 2011, the program has diverted more than 1,500 metric tons of waste from landfills, according to the company.
It’s the first manufacturer-led recycling program for nonhazardous PPE, and it “enables customers to get one step closer to achieving their zero-landfill initiatives and corporate sustainability goals,” Kimberly-Clark says.
Here’s how the program works (see the graphic below for an illustration of this four-step process):
- Customers use disposable PPE in their facilities—items such as eyewear or nitrile gloves that protect workers in potentially hazardous situations.
- Once they are used, the products are collected and shipped to Kimberly-Clark’s recycling centers.
- The used products are then sorted and processed into plastic pellets.
- The plastic pellets are used to create new durable goods, such as patio furniture.
The RightCycle Program accepts the following products:
- Apparel and accessories, including coveralls, lab coats, sleeves, aprons, shoe covers, bouffant caps, beard covers and face masks.
- Eyewear
- Nitrile gloves
Kimberly-Clark says the program is open to any company that uses its Kimberly-Clark Professional products in nonhazardous applications. More detailed information about eligible products can be found here.