Items that can be placed in household recycling bins if uncontaminated
- Soft plastics (e.g. clingfilm)
- Flexible plastics
- Clean plastic containers, washed out with labels removed (e.g. chemical tubs)
- Plastic packaging
Although labs generate different waste compared to the average household (i.e. hazardous chemical waste), they may be tackled using similar principles.
Ways you can directly reduce your labs waste production and overall contribution to landfill:
- Recycle all possible lab materials e.g. Trypsin bottles/PBS bottles
- Ensure only clinical waste is disposed of in autoclave bins
- Divide all waste into appropriate streams
- Only order the volume of consumables needed
- Use minimal packaging vendors where possible
- Arrange take back of items such a cooler packs for reuse
Good inventory practice - Quartzy
Keeping an up-to-date inventory of laboratory consumables and chemicals prevents ordering duplicate and triplicate items and saves money. Logging these and equipment on platforms such as(opens in a new window)Quartzy promotes a culture of sharing and reuse.
Work carried out by a 4th year work experience student under the supervision of Dr. Mary Sekiya (CTO of Pathobiology and Microbiology) collated the inventory lists of labs into one easily accessible database for exactly this purpose.
Unused and leftover inventory in the lab can be placed on Quartzy or on a noticeboard indicating it is available to collect. Alternatively, assigning a dedicated space for such items, as in the case of Dunn School's(opens in a new window)GreenRoom(opens in a new window) is accessible, instantaneous and economical.
Items that cannot be placed in household recycling bins
- Tetra Pak containers
- Polystyrene boxes
- Bubble wrap
Waste in UCD
This is One Hour
Over 22,000 single use coffee cups are disposed of every hour in Ireland.
This is one hour
Over 22,000 single use coffee cups are disposed of every hour in Ireland.
Spotlight 5
Praesent vehicula massa sit amet nisi euismod feugiat.
Spotlight 6