WEEK 01

Course Overview, Principles & Practices

1. Goals & Rationale: Minimizing lab waste


Pipettes, pipette tips, pipette boxes, sample tubes, plastic packaging, petri dishes, cell culture flasks, plates, dishes, pcr tubes, medium and reagent bottles, gloves, I once filled up an entire bin with plastic waste in one sitting and I still remember the immense guilt I felt staring at the contents. Life science labs are heavily dependent on single use plastics for sterility and convenience, and although there are increasing efforts to reduce plastic waste most of it still goes to landfills. Institutions should be more rigorous and create incentives for labs to promote sustainability, institutions like MIT has the power and resources to make this change and set a good example for the field.


2. Design & Requirements


-education: integrate into lab training, inform people on how that specific institution deals with trash, where it goes, what happens to it. It is a privilege not to see trash and a luxury to not be affected by waste, but it should not be forgotten or taken for granted. Engage people on a personal level.


-point system: Inventory supplies purchased to create baseline for each lab (taking into account size and different types of lab) first across labs in school, then across schools, wetlabs across countries and larger institutions. Create ranking and awards, establish authority and ties with competitions like igem or national funding institutes to take points into consideration.


-industry involvement: make deals with supplier to send reusable or recyclable items back


-sorting bins: have bins for safe plastics (packaging, boxes, tips and tubes used for harmless reagents), make bins with a sensor in a compartment that automatically disinfects contents as an added level of security.


-alternatives: invest in reusable glassware, biodegradable plastics.


Everyone will have to be involved in making sustainability a priority, from individuals like students, PIs, to labs, school administration, corporations, national and international institutions.


3. Assumptions & Risks of “Success”


People could abuse the point system to get ahead in competitions or grant applications, create fake data or unnecessary waste. Contaminated waste could leak out by accident.