SHOWA’s revolutionary Eco Best Technology® (EBT) makes a difference to the environment, without any compromise in protection and performance.

Launched in 2012, EBT biodegradable nitrile gloves are the industry’s first, and today, SHOWA offers the most extensive selection of biodegradable hand protection in the market. 

Did you know that of the 150 billion pairs of gloves produced every year, an estimated 100 billion pairs of gloves are thrown away each year? As a result, piles of gloves end up in landfills each year.

Thanks to their special composition, our EBT gloves decompose within 1 to 5 years in active landfills, whereas regular nitrile gloves need more than 100 years.

EBT requires biologically active landfills for biodegradation. This means gloves with EBT can’t begin to biodegrade before disposal. These abilities have been validated by independent certified laboratories using international test methods ASTM D5511 and D5526.

EBT accelerates the biodegradation of nitrile to organic compounds in biologically active landfills:

1. EBT materials are added to the nitrile during production
2. Gloves are disposed
3. Gloves are transferred and discarded into biologically active landfills
4. Microorganisms break down the EBT gloves
5. Organic soil and biogas are left in their place