{"id":2980,"date":"2020-07-02T20:04:34","date_gmt":"2020-07-02T20:04:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.priorclave.com\/en-us\/?p=2980"},"modified":"2020-06-30T20:17:16","modified_gmt":"2020-06-30T20:17:16","slug":"finding-single-use-plastics-alternatives-for-research-labs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.priorclave.com\/en-us\/2020\/07\/02\/finding-single-use-plastics-alternatives-for-research-labs\/","title":{"rendered":"Finding Single-Use Plastics Alternatives for Research Labs"},"content":{"rendered":"

When universities commit to finding single-use plastics alternatives, they often exempt their labs. Usually, such commitments focus on drinking straws and bottled water. But university labs can be a major source of environmental strain. According to Martin Farley\u2014who served as the UK\u2019s first laboratory sustainability officer, back in 2013\u2014the labs at research-intensive universities usually account for about two-thirds of the environmental impact of the university as a whole. \u201cWe have people recycling at home, and doing nothing in their labs,” Farley notes<\/a>. “[but] your impact on the environment [in the lab] is 100 to 125 times more than at home.\u201d<\/p>\n

For a 2015 study<\/a>, a team at the University of Exeter estimated that university research labs generate more than 5.5 million metric tons of single-use plastic waste each year.<\/p>\n

Thankfully, an increasing number of educational institutions are making “plastic-free campus” commitments that include their labs. For example, in the past year University College London (UCL) and University of Leeds<\/a>, California State University’s 23 campuses<\/a>, and SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry<\/a> have all committed to finding viable single-use plastics alternatives for their labs within the next five years (or sooner).<\/p>\n

Single-Use Plastics Alternatives for Your Labs<\/h2>\n

Recycling is a far cry from eliminating single use plastic altogether. But it’s an important first step, often neglected in labs\u2014or even avoided, out of fear of liability or contamination.<\/p>\n

Martin Radolf (head of environmental health and safety at the Research Institute of Molecular Pathology and Institute of Molecular Biotechnology) found that simply reminding researchers to separate plastic packaging<\/a> in their labs could significantly increase recycling efforts. (Labs may choose to autoclave these items prior to recycling, on the off chance they’ve been potentially contaminated.)<\/p>\n

David Kuntin, a biomedical researcher at the University of York, has determined they can go one better. As he puts it<\/a>, \u201cthe contamination we deal with is probably less dangerous than a moldy tin of beans you might have in your recycling after a few weeks.\u201d He and his colleagues developed a \u201cdecontamination station\u201d to pre-treat recyclable lab items. They subsequently reduced the amount of plastic they were sending to landfill by about a ton per year. Kuntin marveled that they saw such a sharp reduction\u2014thousands of plastics diverted from landfills annually\u2014with only marginal effort in a single lab.<\/p>\n

\"plastic

Finding alternatives to single-use plastic pipette tips is a special challenge<\/p><\/div>\n

Pipette tips pose special challenges to labs trying to keep a plastics-free pledge. For some applications, labs can shift to easy-to-autoclave volumetric glass pipettes. Unfortunately, that isn’t always practical. But researchers are making headway. In 2019, a group at the National Institutes of Health\u2019s National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences ran a few tests. They found that, when properly washed, their “single-use” plastic pipette tips were indistinguishable from new tips when used to prepare small-interfering-RNA screening libraries. Other groups have reported similar results. Some have even succeeded in washing, disinfecting, sterilizing, and reusing “single-use” tips 25 to 40 times<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Committed to Reducing Waste<\/h2>\n

From the start, Priorclave North America has championed the central role energy efficiency<\/a> can (and should) take in lab operations. We’re always happy to work with any lab<\/a> looking to tackle a challenging sterilization situation<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When universities commit to finding single-use plastics alternatives, they often exempt their labs. Usually, such commitments focus on drinking straws and bottled water. 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