Piles of Plastic: Strategies to reduce waste in university laboratories
Authors: Marianne S. Meyersohn (member of Center for Sustainable Polymers and Green Chemistry and Sustainability Committee), Jessica Froula, Jennifer L. Brown, Stephanie Mitchell
Executive Summary
Research laboratories are drivers of innovation in science, but many still struggle to adopt sustainable practices. The utilization of plastic in laboratories, especially single-use plastics, though convenient, is causing long-term damage to the environment. Though some individual laboratories have begun implementing strategies to reduce single-use plastic waste, university-wide initiatives to encourage laboratories to adopt sustainable habits are either absent, voluntary, not well-advertised, or only encompass a small proportion of labs. We propose several actions that can be taken by university officials to address this problem, including measuring single-use plastic waste, providing training on laboratory sustainability practices to increase awareness, and encouraging labs to purchase from sustainable suppliers.
Introduction
Single-use plastics have become integral components of laboratory research, but they have also become a major source of waste and negative environmental effects. Most polymers that compose lab plastics are derived from non-renewable petrochemicals, many of which cannot be degraded within short timescales and therefore indefinitely remain in landfills. In the United States, less than 20% of all plastic waste is recycled or incinerated, leaving over 2.6 million tons in landfills annually. Research laboratories are major contributors to this problem: it is estimated that over 5.5 million tons of non-hazardous plastic waste was generated worldwide by research labs in 2014 alone, with single-use plastic and packaging as large contributors. While many individual laboratories are attempting to reduce their plastic footprint, the existing infrastructure to track plastic usage and waste generation is insufficient to properly assess the monetary and environmental impacts of switching to environmentally conscious alternatives.
Barriers to Sustainable Waste Practices
•Monetary costs and emphasis on efficiency over sustainability when purchasing lab equipment
•Lack of information and training on environmentally conscious waste practices
•No requirement for tracking plastic-waste generation and disposal
Barriers to “greener” lab environments include monetary costs, a cultural emphasis on efficiency rather than sustainability, and a lack of education about environmentally friendly practices and alternatives. Single-use plastics such as those depicted in the above figure (pipette tips, conical tubes, culture plates, etc.) expedite laboratory efficiency, reduce cross contamination risk, and are less expensive than glass counterparts, making them convenient options. In biology labs, maintaining sterility for experiments is incredibly important and single-use pipette tips and petri dishes allow researchers to conduct their experiments without risking contamination between samples. However, most of these lab plastics are not recycled, and therefore contribute to both the monetary costs (purchasing and disposal) and environmental (CO2 generation) problems associated with normal waste, meaning non-hazardous, non-recyclable waste that does not have to be treated for chemical or biological hazards before disposal.
Currently, efforts by universities to track the plastic waste they generate are scarce. Even if no other action is taken, recording the weight of the plastic waste and recycled plastic generated by university labs would provide a baseline for each institution to calculate the cost of waste services and extrapolate their carbon impact. Such data could then be used to calculate possible monetary savings associated with decreasing the tonnage of plastic waste.
Efforts like switching to glass items and implementing cleaning practices for re-usable containers can come at a monetary and efficiency cost to researchers. The onus is then on individual laboratories to search for more environmentally conscious methods, rather than having such information provided up-front. Additionally, while many individual researchers receive training on proper safety and waste training in laboratories, there are few attempts to expand these trainings to include aspects on sustainability. Because of this, workers are often unsure of what materials are recyclable, leading to recyclable items in landfill trash bins. A centralized action plan at each university could help by providing information to researchers early and often, which would improve sustainable practices in labs. Such University-wide solutions could include:
•Measure single-use plastic waste in laboratories
•Implementing training for practices to mitigate plastic waste along with general laboratory safety trainings
•University incentivized purchasing of greener products and reducing wasteful packaging
Recommendations: Measure waste, promote sustainability trainings, incentivize the purchase of green products
Large universities with many laboratories have a responsibility to manage their waste and energy. Laboratories are a critical part of the university ecosystem and science pipeline. Universities often include sustainability as a strategic goal, but the immense energy and materials usage in labs remains a barrier to achievement. Institutions should implement policies to help labs decrease their contribution to landfills and increase recycling, especially with regards to plastic. We propose implementing several solutions based on successful sustainability programs, on both an individual lab and university-wide scale (see table).
Although some universities already have Green Labs programs to help with sustainability efforts, participation is often voluntary and results in a patchwork of implementation. These efforts also often center on energy-saving practices regarding lab equipment (e.g. the Freezer Challenge and “Shut the Sash” campaigns for fume hoods) that have easy-to calculate energy cost savings for universities. Reduction of single-use plastic waste, however, is just as important and can also reduce costs. For example, data suggests plastic products in the lab can actually be re-used multiple times, reducing the need and associated cost of repeat orders, packaging, and shipping. Implementation of training, increased plastic recycling, and coordinated purchasing can all help to minimize the environmental impact of research and save money.
