Eco Gloves – Compostable disposable gloves

Carlotta SusannaStaff - September 8, 2020

Gear

I’ve recently backed up this project on Kickstarter and I thought some of you might be interested.

This is their website https://ecogloves.co/

Labor Day promotion: 25% off with code LABORDAY until 9/9 11:59 p.m. (PDT) (I’m not affiliated with them – this is a normal promotion they sent via email newsletter).

Key features:

• Both the gloves, and the individual packets and pouches, are all compostable! 
• Individual packets are about 3 x 3″ and very slim. They take less space than keeping loose latex gloves in a ziplog bag, and so they’d be perfect to keep in a purse or laptop bag, in your back pocket, in the car, to throw in a lunch bag, etc.
• The individually-packed gloves are one size, but they should fit comfortably a wider range of hand sizes. See the pic below of my husband’s (left) and mine (right) hand for comparison.

• Also available in bulk boxes of 100 gloves, with different sizes available https://ecogloves.co/collections/eco-gloves-bags/products/eco-gloves-bulk-box-e100
• Shelf life 12 months.
• The price for the 100 glove bulk box seem to be en par, or slighly cheaper, than a box of 100 latex gloves (at least in my area). The price for the individually-packed gloves are more expensive than similar plastic disposable gloves.

I’ve only received them yesterday, but this what I think:
PRO

• Compostable! Compostable everything! 
• A part from being compostable, the pouch the indvidual packets come in can be reused. It has a nice zip lock, and a wide bottom. I also imagine that the packets would be ok to be burned too, if you wanted or needed to.
• Love the slim packets. I have put some in my day bag/purse, in the car center console, and will keep a couple in my pants pockets all the time.
• The gloves seem to be of a very good quality. I tried to tear the seam down, but instead the glove stretched without ripping. See pic below:

CONS

• 12 months shelf life vs about 4 years for latex gloves.
• They are not a good substitute for medical latex gloves to keep in your medical kit (they are not snug enough around your fingers so if I needed to do some fine needleworking around a wound, they’d be in the way. For the same reason, they also seem to be less sensitive than latex gloves).
• For the reasons above + the limited shelf life I wouldn’t keep them in my BOB either. 
• Although the bulk box’s price seems to be ok, the individually wrapped gloves are more expensive than similar, but not recyclable, gloves. 
• Not all cities have street-level compost bins, or maybe your work place desn’t have them either, so if wanted to compost them after use, you’d need to take them back home with you. If that’s the case, I’d suggest you take your gloves off inside out first (if you don’t know what I mean, we’ve written a blog post about it: https://theprepared.com/blog/how-to-safely-put-on-and-remove-personal-protective-equipment-like-masks-gloves/), and if you have the little packets with you put them back in them. Doing this correctly could be more challenging for kids or people with impaired mobility.

Overall, I am glad I’ve got them, even if I don’t use disposable gloves all that often. But my preperadeness mottos is: You can never be too prepared, and a variety of preps is an advantage!

I also loved to have backed an eco-friendly alternative to disposable gloves, and although they don’t seem like a suitable subtitute to latex gloves in a medical kit or BOB, they seem perfect for people who uses disposable gloves more often, or to throw some of them in a purse, laptop bag, back pocket, or even gifts, care packages, etc!

I hope this was helpful! Stay safe!

2  

I’m curious if the gloves feel weird at all on your hands?

 

It depends by what do you mean for weird. They feel smooth and soft to me, unlike similar gloves you find, let’s say, in at-home hair dies (basically these types: https://www.amazon.com/Plastic-Disposable-Gloves-Transparent-Brandon-super/dp/B087PKS1P7/), which I think are more crinkly.