You might be skeptical looking at plastic recycling in the lab and you probably should be. The expectation is that carefully sorted non-contaminated recycling collections will be remanufactured into products that will lower the demand for fossil fuel-based plastic. Unfortunately, according to the report, The Real Truth About the U.S. Plastics Recycling Rate, the conversion of plastic recycling collections into new materials, known as source reduction, has failed. Mixed plastic collections are especially at risk.
Biologists want to avoid landfilling and incineration of plastic waste when possible but are justifiably dubious of recycling programs. Selecting an environmentally responsible way to dispose of massive volumes of single-use plastics generated in life science labs is fraught with fixed safety requirements and unknown environmental outcomes. That is why I invited GreenLabs Recycling, a company that locally manufactures lab products from recycled non-hazardous plastic waste collected from labs in the Boston area to give a talk at the Labconscious Go Green Symposium.
Sam White, the CEO of GreenLabs Recycling, spoke to biologists at the non-profit biotech startup incubator, Lab Central in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Sam is also a co-founder of Greentown Labs, the largest climate-tech incubator in the US with 140 cleantech start-ups sharing wet labs and machine shops in Somerville and Houston. GreenLabs Recycling is unique in that the recycling and remanufacturing of lab plastic is kept local. Transport further reduces the carbon footprint of the process, on top of reducing virgin plastic manufacturing. GreenLabs Recycling collects clean and dry #1 (PET) or #5 (PP) lab plastics, such as empty media bottles and pipette tip boxes. They offer an autoclavable, benchtop transfer bin for disposal of used pipette tips, which fits multichannel pipettes nicely. The idea is to either autoclave your contaminated tips in the bin before disposal or to safely transfer contaminated tips from your workspace to your larger red bag collection. Watch the video of Sam’s talk below to learn more.
“There are no industry standard certifications for plastics recycling services. There should be regulatory tracking to show where plastics go so you know that a recycler is not making false claims. Unfortunately, it happens. You don’t have to take a flight and visit the recycling facility and see where the material is granulated, but you should always ask where the material goes after granulating.”
When I asked Sam about how life science labs can be sure that their plastic is actually being recycled, he offered an answer on the blind spot in global recycling infrastructure and some advice. “There are no industry standard certifications for plastics recycling services. There should be regulatory tracking to show where plastics go so you know that a recycler is not making false claims. Unfortunately, it happens. You don’t have to take a flight and visit the recycling facility and see where the material is granulated, but you should always ask where the material goes after granulating.” This was a diplomatic and cogent answer.
Biologists are eager to prevent plastic pollution and reduce environmental impacts when the system is userfriendly and verifiable. Let’s hope that industry-standard certifications for plastics recyclers emerge. In the meantime, the more we can support innovators trying to serve life science, the better for the environment.