Usage of recycling material

The goal of circular economy is to decouple economic activities from the consumption of finite resources. In other words: to keep products and material in circulation at highest value, and – in an ideal world – that materials never become waste, and nature is regenerated. Especially regarding laboratory plastics, this goal is difficult challenging to be achieved in its full scope.

The production, use, and fate of plastics is a particular challenge, as plastic waste accumulates in our environment in various forms due to waste management systems that are generally not yet fully developed for this purpose. . Nevertheless, steps have been taken in various directions, focusing on better recycling strategies. At the same time, there are many limits to the quality of secondary raw materials and their use in sensitive areas like food, medicine, or research applications. This also includes the use of recyclates for the production of laboratory consumables for which special qualities such as purity, sterility and other specific customer requirements must be met.

Contact or non-contact between recyclate and samples?

Products like tips, tubes, and plates have direct contact to samples whereas packaging material and secondary parts of products like tube holders or tip boxes have no direct contact to sample material. This differentiator has a significant impact on the topic of recyclate material.
High valuable samples – The safety of the samples is the top priority

Clear material for tubes and plates is required. Therefore, recycling material is limited to clear original material.
No leachables are allowed. As a consequence, recycling material must be free of other components.
Extreme stability for high speed centrifugation is needed. Recycling material must not contain traces of other plastics in recyclate as these can lead to weak-spots and – as a consequence – to material break-down.
Sudden temperature changes of 100 °C must be with-stood. Recycled material has to contain long polymer chains as one prerequisite for material stability and material resistance in a broad temperature range.
Handling of chemicals has to be safe. Only defined and homogenous recycled material can guarantee chemical resistance.

We as Eppendorf are convinced, laboratory consumables made of recycling material will be available in the future. This is a question of time and new technologies. The Eppendorf R&D team is in close contact with the relevant raw material manufacturers in this area.

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Support material and structures

The epT.I.P.S. require a handling system for convenient storage and fixation of the tips to the pipette. The related rack or box is part of the product as a supportive factor. Whereas the refillable boxes of Eppendorf are made of Polycarbonate (PC), the singleuse racks are made of Polypropylene (PP).

These epT.I.P.S. Racks are a container for a tray with 24, 48, 96 or even 384 pipette tips, depending on the volume size range of the tip. Racks are available in 4 sizes and are closed with a lid to protect tips from dust and dirt during lab usage.

Recycled plastic in the rack

End-of-Life

The Eppendorf R&D work resulted in an improved rack concept: The usage of 100% postindustrial, singular type PP recyclate. The material is provided by an EUCertPlast certified supplier and replaces a similar amount of fossil oil as raw material.

Since mid of 2024, the first epT.I.P.S. racks are produced from 100% recyclate. Stepwise, we will now replace the different rack sizes with adapted models made of recyclate.

Racks made of 100% recycled PP can be handled and recycled in the same way as racks made of virgin PP.

Please check with your local biosafety/ sustainability/ waste management regarding local standards and requirements as the racks and boxes can be contaminated.