Comparison · PPE
Disposable PPE exists for good reasons — contamination, hygiene, one-off visitors. But plenty of it gets bought from habit, at a cost-per-use that would embarrass any procurement review. Here's where each genuinely belongs.
The logic
Disposable PPE earns its place where the disposal is the point: gloves that carry contamination you don't want travelling (food handling, healthcare, chemicals, used oil), coveralls worn once over clean clothes for a dirty task, masks whose filters are spent by definition, hairnets and overshoes in hygiene zones, and kit for visitors and one-off contractors who'll never wear it twice.
Everywhere else, the disposable option is usually the expensive one wearing a cheap price tag. A box of disposable gloves used daily costs more per month than a rotation of quality coated work gloves — and protects less, fits worse and tears sooner. The honest comparison is always cost per use at the protection level the task needs, not price per unit.
The split
| Situation | Right call | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Food prep, healthcare, chemical handling | Disposable nitrile | Contamination must leave with the glove |
| General handling, trades, site work | Reusable coated gloves | Better protection, small fraction of the cost per use |
| One-off dirty task over clean clothes | Disposable coverall | Cheaper than laundering a contaminated garment |
| Daily workshop wear | Reusable coveralls in rotation | Laundering beats landfill on every metric |
| Dust masks | Disposable FFP-rated — or reusable half-mask for regular use | Filters are consumable either way; frequency decides the format |
| Visitor & induction kit | Disposable | Hygiene and sizing chaos otherwise |
Worth knowing
Questions
When disposal is the protection: contamination that must leave with the kit (food, healthcare, chemicals, used oil), one-off dirty tasks, hygiene zones, and visitor kit. For daily repeated work, reusable rated equipment protects better and costs less per use.
Per unit, yes; per month of daily use, almost never. A quality coated work glove survives days of what a disposable survives minutes of. The fair comparison is cost per use at the required protection level — disposables win it only where contamination forces single use.
Disposable PPE carries its own certifications — FFP ratings on masks, EN 374 on chemical gloves, food-contact approvals on nitrile. Single-use doesn't mean unrated; check the standard against the task exactly as you would with reusable kit.
Both sides of every comparison are one click away — or ask a human to settle it for your team.