Recycling of used lab consumables?

Plastic is ubiquitous in our daily life – at home and in the laboratory. We as human beings use a lot of plastic. In 2019, 460 million tons of plastics were produced globally, and this is nearly twice the amount manufactured in 2000 (234 million tons). The manufacturing of plastic released 1.8 gigatons of CO₂ into the atmosphere. Compared to all other emissions, plastic production alone accounts for 3.4 % of the global CO₂ emissions. If you compare these numbers with the CO₂ emissions of countries, global plastic production will rank as 5th place after China, the USA, EU-27, and Japan.

Collection and recycling of plastic is the key for future development. Laboratory plastic consumables are a challenge for recycling: Whatever enters the laboratory is defined as being contaminated. This contamination can be a biological, a chemical, or even radioactive one. To improve the efforts and finally the quality of the collected plastic material, dedicated collection boxes for specific material like PP, PE, or PC.