How to Reduce Laboratory Plastic Waste
Practical ways to keep the plastic waste in your laboratory at a minimum
Since 2020 testing requirements across the entire globe have rocketed in response to the coronavirus pandemic, as countries battle to keep the virus under control and allow people to maintain livelihoods as close to normal as possible. This has happened alongside a burgeoning awareness of the impact we have on the environment - right through from individuals, to global corporations, to governments. With this comes into sharp focus a realisation that this high level of testing generates a huge mountain of waste that often lands up in landfill or makes its way into our oceans. Back in 2015 the University of Exeter estimated that globally laboratories generate 5.5 million tonnes of waste per year1, roughly the combined tonnage of 67 cruise liners. The figure now is likely to be much higher. With this in mind, it’s important to consider ways to keep plasticware waste in the laboratory to a minimum.
RECYCLE
The first thing that you can do to reduce your laboratory plastic waste is to consider what plasticware you can recycle, instead of sending out to waste. The barrier here for many laboratories is that recycling plastic waste that is contaminated can often be prohibitively expensive, as it requires the services of specialist recycling companies. To overcome this, the University of York2 set up an energy efficient decontamination station, which sees plastics being soaked in a high-level disinfectant for 24 hours, before being rinsed and sorted into colour coded recycling bins. This meant that their existing chemical waste removal company would, with negotiation, collect the laboratory plastic waste and recycle it.
Another recycling obstacle is that laboratories often source their plasticware from multiple different suppliers, many of which use different plastics. By reducing the number of suppliers that you purchase your plasticware from, you make recycling easier whilst also minimising the number of deliveries required (this in itself reduces your environmental impact). This applies to not just your laboratory, but if you belong to a larger organisation consisting of multiple laboratories and departments, you may consider expanding your procurement process from being local to organisation-wide. There may well also be a cost benefit associated with streamlining your purchasing.
When examining your purchasing, also consider that some of your laboratory plasticware may be made from mixed materials, which then won’t be accepted by companies who don’t allow mixed recycling. For example, some lids may contain a paper or rubber ring within them. Consider using alternatives which contain just one material, or create a system for separating our your recycling waste.
REDUCE
Taking a step back from looking at what plasticware is used and how to recycle it, it is easy to underestimate the wastage caused from inefficient use of laboratory plasticware. An easy step to take is to consider your plate utilisation. If you’re not using every well in a plate consider how you can use batch processes or multiplexing assays to ensure every well is used per plate, or by purchasing smaller plates to match your requirements. Also consider the size of the article of plasticware that you are using – for instance, make sure you are using smallest container viable when aliquoting.
You can also reduce your plasticware requirements by making sure that your processes are as streamlined as possible. You may find it possible to prepare some things in bulk, like master mixes or culture media, which will help you to reduce the plasticware that you use.
REUSE
Although it may seem like there is very little you can reuse in a laboratory, there are a couple of things that you could consider.
Firstly, the most obvious way to reduce waste in the laboratory using the reusing methodology is to substitute what plasticware you can with glassware. Examples of this may be pipettes, filter bottles, petri dishes and test tubes. Of course this does require washing and autoclave capabilities, which may be an inhibitive factor for some laboratories.
It is not only glassware that can be reused though – there are some pieces of laboratory plasticware that are not just single-use. For instance, plastic pipettes or filter tips can be reused in some instances. The University of Bristol found it possible to reuse plastic nitrile gloves, with the aid of a thorough decontamination procedure using ethanol.
In summary, there are clear ways to reduce the environmental impact of your laboratory, even as your throughput increases. By taking small steps such as examining your procurement process and recycling methods, as well as other laboratory processes, you can effectively use the 3 Rs principle to keep your wastage to a very minimum. It is often possible to achieve this without exorbitant costs and also without being restrictively impractical.
1 Urbina, M., Watts, A. & Reardon, E. Labs should cut plastic waste too. Nature 528, 479 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/528479c