Plastic packaging often gets a bad rap (wrap?). And rightly so — approximately 5.5 million tons of plastic is produced annually in life sciences laboratories. While it provides essential protection and labeling for products, its impact on the environment calls for action. Fortunately, there are ways laboratories can reduce their waste from plastic packaging.
Prevent waste in the first place
While this may seem like an obvious choice, it’s not necessarily an easy one. Once plastic is used in a laboratory, it’s hard to dispose of sustainably, especially if it’s contaminated. The best option is to prevent waste before it happens. That’s easier said than done, though, and requires significant planning. Here are some ideas to help you avoid creating waste in your laboratory in the first place:
Conduct an audit of your laboratory supplies use to get an idea of how much waste is generated. By doing this, you may be able to make some clever changes such as ordering in bulk when you can or reducing the number of orders for items that aren’t used frequently.
Perform microscale procedures, which are a powerful way to increase experimental efficiency and sustainability, while reducing single-use product packaging, time, and money. These tiny experiments use small amounts of materials matched to scale, meaning less waste is produced and resources are conserved. The perks don't stop there – because microscale experiments take up significantly less storage space and can be completed much faster than traditional parts of larger-scale experiments, your lab has more room to make more discoveries. Examples can include protocol switches, like Speeding Up And Greening Up Bacteria Culture Count Methods or unique equipment like the MANTIS® Liquid Handler. The MANTIS is a relatively inexpensive award-winning liquid handler for running 2 to 5 µl volume reactions. This can conserve samples and reagents on top of single-use plastic packaging waste.
Use computer modeling. As software gets increasingly more sophisticated, computer modeling can replace physical experiments. These computer programs simulate what the outcome of a reaction will be and are becoming more accurate at predicting how cultures will grow. This prevents the need for plastic packaging or waste of any kind because it’s all done virtually. Computer modeling can also be used to test different sizes and shapes of containers for shipping your products. With this method, you are able to find the most efficient way to visualize storage options without needing to create test containers with plastic waste.
Making materials go the extra mile
Once plastic has been made and used, it’s too late to undo its creation. However, you can still reduce plastic waste in your lab by finding ways to make your existing plastic go further.
One way to achieve this is by cutting down on single-use plastics. You can still get plastic packaging but look for items that are reusable and long-lasting. When ordering supplies, opt for glass Petri dishes and pipettes instead of their disposable counterparts as they'll last much longer without the need to restock frequently with extra materials in unnecessary plastic.
Repurposing plastics is also an option. Can you take the Styrofoam® box that once held dry ice and use it to store Petri dishes? If a piece of single-use plastic packaging has not been badly contaminated, it may be possible to wash and use it for another purpose. Grenova®, a lab equipment firm, did just that, creating washing systems specifically for pipette tips. The washing systems use ultraviolet light irradiation to sterilize single-use pipette tips so they can be reused several times.
Some companies have found success by sharing supplies between departments or even other companies entirely. This innovative strategy helps with the reuse of plastics, and when materials do need to be ordered, they can be purchased in bulk, which cuts down on plastic packaging. Have extra supplies? You can share them with laboratories at high schools or local colleges.
Recycle Tip Boxes, Media bottles, and Foam Shippers
If plastic waste is unavoidable, make sure to recycle it as much as possible. While recycling isn't perfect and still creates pollution, it's a far superior choice than simply sending the materials to be dumped in landfills – plus some companies are finding new ways of reclaiming seemingly un-recyclable plastics!
For example, laboratories at Tufts University partnered with Green Labs to recycle plastic packagings, such as clean media bottles and the plastic boxes that pipette tips come in. While the university can’t completely avoid using plastic packaging, this has been a successful program to help them recycle plastic waste.
Similarly, Millipore Sigma® has a Polystyrene Cooler Return Program. Polystyrene is a plastic that is used in many forms of insulated packaging. MilliporeSigma’s program allows customers to remove their purchased items from the polystyrene coolers, then close the cooler up again and ship it back to the company with pre-paid postage stamps. MilliporeSigma will then inspect the cooler and, if possible, reuse it for future orders.
Conclusion
Laboratories everywhere have the power to reduce their use of plastic packaging and contribute towards climate action—all they need is a bit of creativity and effort! Small changes over time can add up to make a huge difference.
