Overview on the Potential of Biodegradable Natural Rubber Latex Gloves for Commercialization

Abstract

Rubber gloves are one of the highest production of consumable and disposable commodity worldwide. These scenario in a way increased the volume of rubber solid waste disposal each year as the latex products commodity is design as a single used product. This is due to complexity of rubber/latex based products to degrade in nature environment hence increased the time for degradation in the landfill which normally occurred after more than 2 years. Thus, combination of rubber system with bio-materials is a feasible option. Novel Green Additives: Bio-Add is addded in NRL gloves formulation to accelerate biodegradation process. The biodegradable gloves were then being decomposed in soil for four (4) weeks and the mechanical properties were assessed. The result shows that, the mechanical properties of biodegradable gloves decreased as biodegradation week elapses. The addition of Novel Green Additives: Bio-Add have increased the biodegradability of NRL gloves. Novel Green Additives: Bio-Add offer an advantages to the latex based manufactured as it proven to accelerate the biodegradation process of the latex films using existing production line with minimal additional cost.