For years, one dedicated steward in Chelsea, MI gained permission from her large, industrial employer to take possession of all the lightly-used working gloves that factory standards had marked for disposal. The company (too modest to be named here) was supportive, but the volume quickly overwhelmed. That’s when The Stewardship Network got involved, picking up these extremely useful gloves, having them cleaned, sorting them into matching pairs, and getting them into (and onto) helping hands across the Great Lakes area. Today, gloves repurposed in this program’s earliest days are still put to use in service of a wide range of collaborative stewardship actions and we’re just warming up.
SMALL STEPS
SERIOUS IMPACT
Already, TSN Gloves for Good has equipped a staggering number of nature’s caretakers while diverting 13,654 pairs of gloves from landfills, avoiding 995 pounds of waste, preventing ~1.24 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions, and saving our recipients $21,012 dollars better spent elsewhere.
If you or your organization actively care for the land and water where you live and would benefit from a gift of these gloves, we’d be honored to assist. Local pickups (near Ann Arbor, MI) are available for free, or we’ll arrange to send them to you (within the continental US) if you can cover those costs. Please note that even with shipping expenses, our recipients are typically saving 70% – 90% compared to buying these gloves new. To start the process, just use the button at the top of this page or click here.
Currently available for new requests: Gtek gloves (medium, large/XL) similar to the images above; cotton gloves are out of stock at present but will be returned to the request form whenever available
“When we invite volunteers to join us for workdays throughout the year, it is so wonderful to be able to offer them all clean, comfortable gloves that fit well. Like most conservancies, we have old work gloves that we’ve offered volunteers in the past, but they are either worn to pieces, or only fit large hands. Being able to supply everyone with gloves that fit shows that we value all of our volunteers. We are able to host tree planting, garlic mustard pulling, and trail maintenance workdays with large groups and we never run out of gloves thanks to The Stewardship Network!”
Amy Lipson, Conservation Specialist
“Last Monday the Van Buren Conservation District held a passenger tire and electronics recycling event in Hartford, MI. We were able to collect 1300 passenger tires and about 1000 lbs of electronics for recycling. Without programs like this many of these tires end up getting dumped in our forests, wetlands, and rivers, where they destroy habitat and become a breeding ground for mosquitoes. Almost every tire we collected had standing water in it. These gloves allowed us to safely handle these materials so they can be sent to a recycling facility.”
Alex Florian, TSN Member Community Coordinator
If you have photos or stories of these gloves in action, we’d love to see them and hear all about it at gloves@stewardshipnetwork.org
Gloves for Good Program Partners
Like so many great superheroes, the good people supplying these gloves prefer that their identity remains a secret. We thank them sincerely for powering this effort and their willingness to engage creatively for the betterment of our natural world.
Cleaning services provided by Ann Arbor’s famous Mr. Stadium Laundromat. We thank them for restoring these valuable gloves to ready-to-work status and appreciate their ongoing support.
Our friends at ECN have generously offered to help us distribute gloves across the Detroit area and we sincerely appreciate it.
Big thanks to our longtime friends (and office neighbors) Resource Recycling Systems for their expertise in analyzing the impact of this program, particularly its GhG emission reductions.
Special thanks to our longtime allies at Mike Appel Environmental Design for transporting our gloves to and from the cleaners.
The team at the Saline, MI Allegra office has helped us with numerous projects over the years. For this initiative, they generously provide the boxes we use for organization / shipping.
