This post is not fertility related but shines light on an important issue regarding waste production in laboratories around the world. I always thought of myself as an environmentalist. Not one of those people who lives and breathes the environment but I’d try my best not to add any unnecessary waste or increase my carbon footprint. I did always admire the individuals who were able to live completely environmentally friendly but it is much easier said than done in the world we live in now. Globalization has definitely been a blessing and a curse. In the environment side of things, it has not been making it easy to reduce the detrimental impacts we are placing on our planet.
I tried to advocate the best I could until the hypocrisy settled in when I started working in a laboratory. The amount of waste and plastic that we produce on a daily basis is astonishing. The way that laboratories are organized around the world is based on using plastic on a daily basis. There are not a lot of alternatives that laboratories are willing to try. When plastic was introduced into labs, it was such a revolutionary discovery that made lab work easier, faster and more reproducible. The effects on the environment were not considered at the time, similar to many other technological advances that are harming our planet.
With our planet at risk, it is definitely time to reconsider how we view our waste production. I believe it is no longer enough for us to just try our best at home to reduce our own waste. Of course this is great and I encourage everyone to do it but we need to do more, we have to do more. It is just not enough. The next logical step would be to try and implement new ways to deal with these issues in our places of work. It may seem impossible at first, but it is doable. We all learn by example and so if we see even one person trying to implement new ways to deal with waste production, it is easier for us to follow in their footsteps.
It is not just labs that produce an insane amount of plastic waste, it is the same with dentists, doctor’s offices, food packaging industry, etc. If we all try and take on a small portion of this, we will be able to reduce our waste tremendously. Now is the time to take action and we can no longer hide behind excuses.
Here are a few suggestions that I could come up with for lab managers/ organizers:
- Ensure recycling bins are provided in convenient/accessible locations in the lab and recycling of packaging is reinforced.
- After some quick research, I found companies which will recycle media bottles even if they store chemicals that normal recycling does not accept, try to use these companies.
- Try to reduce the number of gloves used. Safety is important and always comes first but it is ok to reuse gloves if they are not contaminated.
- Try to implement reusable tip holders.
- If a container can be reused in any way for storage or any other purposes, wash, autoclave and reuse it.
- Try to re-use plastic products as much as possible.
- Only discard contaminated waste into yellow bins for incarceration. Uncontaminated waste should be discarded in regular garbage and recycled as much as possible.
These may seem like simple fixes that will not have too much of an impact but if we all start somewhere, the initiatives will pick up and before we know it, waste production is reduced tremendously. It is not just the quality and price of product that needs to be considered when choosing what to purchase, the sustainability needs to be taken into consideration as well. It will pay off in the long run. We have to start taking responsibility and not put the blame on other people. There are so many other things we could change to lower our carbon footprint. We owe it to ourselves and everyone else to start these initiatives. It is long overdue for us to start implementing new environmentally friendly initiatives. Let's start today so we have a better future.
