Waste

Less waste starts with better choices

Labs generate a staggering amount of waste. Single use plastics, packaging, pipette tips and gloves can fill bins faster than almost anywhere else. It's one of the most visible signs of an unsustainable lab, which also makes it one of the most rewarding areas to tackle: the results are immediate, and everyone can see them.

From rethinking what you order, to reusing and recycling what you already have, to finding take-back schemes for the trickier materials, there's a lot you can do without ever compromising your science. Most of it starts with small swaps and a little awareness.

Read the blogs below for practical ways to cut your lab's waste.

What's in the Box? Tackling Packaging Waste from Lab Suppliers

In a previous Greening the Bench post, Experimentation Miniaturisation: Doing More with Less, we looked at how scaling down what we use in an experiment can cut cost and carbon at the same time. This time, we're turning our attention to something that turns up on your bench almost every day but rarely gets a second thought once the contents are unpacked: the box itself. Between cardboard outers, foam inserts, bubble wrap, polystyrene coolers and gel packs, lab suppliers often

Jul 13

Experimentation Miniaturisation: Doing More with Less

In a previous Greening the Bench post, Rethink Before You Recycle: Tackling Lab Consumables Waste, we looked at how rethinking what we use can have a big impact on lab waste. This time, we’re taking that same mindset to the experimental scale itself, exploring how much can be saved, both financially and environmentally, by simply doing more with less. Whether you’re preparing buffers, culturing cells, or running chromatographic analyses, there’s often room to scale down. Mini

Oct 27, 2025

Rethink Before You Recycle: Tackling Lab Consumables Waste

If the amount of plastic that your lab goes through feels overwhelming, you’re definitely not alone. From pipette tips and falcon tubes, to gloves and wipes, single-use plastic consumables are the norm in most lab environments. They do provide convenience and help to prevent contamination but they end up being a frequent hidden expense, and filling up our bins. Recycling is the easy option, simple, visible and familiar and it can feel great! Throwing plastic items away hoping

Jul 28, 2025

Do You Really Need That? Reducing Waste Through Equipment Sharing

Labs are packed with equipment, workhorses like centrifuges, spectrometers, and stirrers. But step back and ask: how many of them are actually in use right now? The truth is uncomfortable. Many labs have equipment that sits idle, while the lab next door buys another version of the same thing. This isn’t just inefficient but wasteful, expensive, and environmentally unsustainable. If we’re serious about sustainability in science, we need to stop normalising this culture of isol

May 1, 2025