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The 5 R's

Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Repurpose, Recycle

The Five R's

The Five R's are guiding principles for sustainable living and waste management.

As a last resort, recycling is the most environmentally friendly waste disposal method.

We've compiled a list of ways you can directly reduce your labs waste production and overall contribution to landfill below.

For more information, visit the (opens in a new window)My Green Lab website.

Decline unnecessary items, especially single-use plastics, to prevent waste from entering the system.

  • Look for vendors who offer take-back programs for packaging. 
  • Talk to your procurement team about refusing to buy wasteful or non-recyclable products.

Limit consumption by buying only what is necessary, conserving resources, and cutting down on waste production. 

  • Consider using glass instead of plastic where possible.
  • Purchase from vendors that are striving to reduce their packaging. 
  • Consolidate orders and only order what you need.
  • Share resources such as equipment, reagents and consumables.
  • Eliminate waste streams by switching to long lasting or more renewable approaches. For example, the waste stream associated with blot development (developer, film, etc) can be largely eliminated by using a digital system.
  • Reduce… 
    • numbers of gloves used by reusing uncontaminated pairs
    • the quantity of filter tips used by using non-filter tips where possible
    • the overall quantity of tips used by using buffers before more contaminating sensitive reagents
  • Can you divert waste from autoclave streams?

Reuse consumables? Yes please!

You can also opt for durable, reusable alternatives over disposable ones, extending the life of products.
 

  • Pipette tips can be washed and/or autoclaved and reused. 
  • Reuse packaging and dry ice for your own lab shipments. 
  • Moving house? Hold on to clean cardboard boxes for reuse.
  • Pipette tip boxes can be refilled for reuse. 
  • The plastic containers for reagents can be rinsed and reused e.g. T75s, Media & PBS bottles

For every item that can't be refused, reduced, or reused, try repurposing it. In this way you can give items a second life by transforming them into something new and useful, reducing the demand for new materials.

  • Pipette tip boxes can be repurposed to hold other lab supplies or as containers for Western blots.
  • Empty ELISA kit boxes can be used as individuals storage boxes in fridges

Many laboratory items and packaging is recyclable in common household recycling bins provided they are clean and uncontaminated. Glassware such as Duran bottles and old or broken conical flasks can also be recycled alongside household glassware if they are uncontaminated and cannot be reused or repurposed. 

The following lab materials can be recycled:  

  • Nitrile gloves (Non-hazardous Kimberly-Clark gloves only
  • Pipette tip boxes (recycled by Cruinn), Pipette tips
  • Cardboard
  • Soft plastics (e.g. clingfilm), Flexible plastics, Plastic packaging (i.e. wrappers from serological pipettes)
  • Conical tubes, centrifuge tubes
  • Reagent and chemical bottles (cleaned and decontaminated as per your institution's guidelines)
  • Glass bottles (Thorntons)
  • Ink and toner cartridges (Infotone recycle printer cartridges [except Epson] if separated)
  • Batteries (WEEE waste by Stericycle)
  • Polystyrene (Collected and crushed for use as insulating material)

Items that cannot be placed in household recycling bins

  • Tetrapak containers
  • Polystyrene boxes
  • Bubble wrap