M7005PF (Biodegradable Medical Gloves)

2022: Bringing gloves to market

On April 21, 2022, Showa Group announced the release of biodegradable single-use nitrile medical gloves. New medical products contain no impurities, are resistant to leakage and ruptures, and since they are made of nitrile-butadiene latex, they do not cause allergies to natural rubber latex.

In laboratory tests, gloves were shown to decompose by 80% in an average of 386 days. Complete decomposition is estimated to occur after one to five years in active landfills, compared to the decades that conventional nitrile gloves require.

The first biodegradable medical gloves entered the market

Glove biodegradability is achieved through the use of Showa's Eco Best technology, which it first introduced in 2012 and has since used in a wide range of its products. The American market received the M7005PF model - 4-mm blue gloves with textured fingertips, which are available in four sizes.

According to Richard Heppell, president and chief operating officer, the company produces all the gloves at a facility in Fayette, Alabama, and receives nitrile butadiene latex from Zeon Chemicals of Kentucky, Showa is the only fully American manufacturer of biodegradable gloves.

In February 2022, Showa announced plans to expand the enterprise. The expansion, backed by contracts worth more than $80 million from the US Department of Health and Welfare and $35 million from its own funds, is expected to triple Showa glove production, which should reach 1.2 billion gloves per year by the end of 2022 and 2.8 billion after the completion of new facilities in the fall of 2024.^[1]

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