India has a major role to play in the transition of the global glove industry to an environment-friendly state: Dr S Supramaniam

Gloves find wide use in the health sector as well as in industry. (Representative image)

The future of the glove industry will hinge on sustainability, as skyrocketing demand for gloves following the outbreak of COVID-19 has presented the industrial segment with the humongous problem of disposability.

India will have a major role to play in the transition of the global glove industry, from synthetic rubber dominant gloves to natural materials, to make it more environment-friendly and sustainable, said Dr S Supramaniam, President of the Malaysian Rubber Glove Manufacturers Association.

The total global production, pegged at 492 billion pieces with a retail value of $150 billion, has grown 20 percent from the pre-pandemic period. From 10-12 percent, the annual growth zoomed to 80-90 percent in the last 2.5 years. “The increased awareness on healthcare after the pandemic will keep the growth rate to 12-15 percent in the coming years,” he told Moneycontrol.

Such was the rising demand that the glove industry required nine months to a year to meet the requirements, instead of 35 to 40 days earlier. As a result, currently an estimated 15,533 pieces of gloves are used every second.

The synthetic rubber (SR) component in the gloves has climbed from a mere 5 percent, 15 years ago, to 60 percent now, reducing the share of natural rubber (NR) from 95 percent to 40 percent. “This happened because of two factors. First, NR faced some supply problems forcing the industry to look for alternatives. Second, cases of protein allergy from gloves with more NR led to its decline in use,” Supramaniam, who was in Kochi for a talk at the India Rubber Meet 2022, said.

The glove-making process underwent many changes in the last few years, making gloves with more NR content safe for use. “But the mindset of the consumers is yet to change,” he said.

Now, with the industry faced with the issue of sustainability and the trend to go green becoming strong all over the world, it is looking to move away from raw materials made from fossil fuels to natural materials like natural rubber.

“The industry is focusing on gloves with materials that are safe, green, sustainable and bio-degradable. India, with good availability of NR and abundant workforce, can spearhead the drive to go green. The manufacturers in India use more NR unlike those in China and other countries,” he said.

Today, the glove industry is cognizant of social aspects like forced labour, as major consumers refuse to buy from units that employ child or forced labour. But it is yet to focus on the environmental aspect. In future, the industry will have to look at environment, social and governance (ESG) regulations.

Malaysia is the largest producer of gloves, with a share of 66-67 percent, followed by China with 20-22 percent, Thailand (10 percent) and Indonesia (3 percent). India’s share is a meagre 0.7 percent, which could be expanded considerably with more use of NR.

Though Malaysia is the biggest producer of gloves, its internal consumption is 0.05 percent, with the remaining being exported. Currently, the US and Europe are the largest consumers of gloves, but there is good scope for higher consumption in developing countries, he reckons.

“The per capita consumption of gloves is 75 pairs in the US and 65 pairs in Europe. In comparison, it is lower at 6 pairs in China and 3 pairs in India,” he said.

Gloves find wide use in the health sector as well as in industry. But after the pandemic struck, there has been a quantum jump in demand from the medical sector, which will continue to hold firm. The AIDS scare saw the demand for gloves surge in the late 1970s. Later, after every virus outbreak like NiV, SARS, Ebola and COVID-19, gloves continued to remain at the forefront as a critical personal protective equipment.

Besides using it for the traditional medical examination and surgeries, discerning requirements based on occupational functionalities have led to a proliferation of specialty and niche gloves that now make up 25 percent of all gloves, according to Supramaniam.