How do I calculate the carbon footprint of latex or nitrile gloves?
Multiply the latex or nitrile compound per 1,000 gloves by its factor, add the dipping line's heating fuel and electricity, chlorination or polymer coating, and boxes. Divide by thousands of gloves passed. Dipping lines run hot ovens continuously, so fuel is a large plant line.
Materials
- Natural rubber latex or nitrile (NBR) latex: weigh compound per 1,000 gloves.
- Coagulant, accelerators, zinc oxide and pigments.
- Dispenser boxes and cartons.
Process energy
- Dipping line ovens for drying and curing: PNG, LPG, biomass or thermal fluid.
- Former cleaning tanks and leaching water heating.
- Electricity for chains, pumps and stripping.
Per 1,000 gloves
Report per 1,000 gloves by size and grade; examination and surgical gloves differ in thickness. Rejects are part of what the line made.
Worked example: glove line per 1,000 (one month)
- Oven PNG: 200,000 SCM x 2.05 = 410,000 kg CO2
- Electricity: 300,000 kWh x 0.710 = 213,000 kg CO2
- Thousands of gloves passed: 20,000
- Plant total: 623,000 / 20,000 = 31.15 kg CO2 per 1,000 gloves
- Add latex compound, chemicals and boxes for the full figure
Inputs are illustrative; use your own bills and production records.
What Senseible does here
Senseible reads the plant's electricity bills (CEA grid factor 0.710 kg CO2 per kWh, CO2 Baseline Database version 21.0) and fuel invoices (IPCC 2006 defaults) into a fingerprinted Scope 1 and 2 record, the plant-level input to a per-unit figure. Bought-in materials go to the supplier evidence trail; product reports are self-declared drafts.
Sources: GHG Protocol Product Standard, ISO 14067:2018, Carbon footprint of products (iso.org), IPCC 2006 Guidelines, Volume 2 Energy (fuel defaults), CEA CO2 Baseline Database, version 21.0
Last reviewed 2026-10-20.