I work in healthcare and sometimes I think about the amount of waste I generate in a day and it’s wild
Plastic recycling in the home is basically a scam, but at the scale of a hospital where you’re generating large amounts of the same (known) plastic that’s going in its own bin, it’s much easier to recycle. I just bought a bunch of recycled PET that mostly came from medical waste.
I mean, I’ve worked at a number of hospitals in the US and never seen a recycling receptacle for our waste. Our waste either goes in a biohazard bag to be incinerated, sharps containers to be disposed of (altho not sure in what way), or a regular trash can to presumably in a landfill.
Not sure if other countries are different, but I can’t imagine they sort through our biohazard waste bags for plastic materials.
Its a matter of scale. If labs went through pipette tips the same way that fast food joints went through plastic straws, they’d be banned too.
And we don’t throw pipette tips in the ocean, we throw them in the biohazard box. While not better for the environment, at least we don’t choke baby turtles.
The lab is a much more controlled environment. I trust a lab tech to dispose of the tips as per protocol, which could reduce the number of tips that end up as litter.
Some estimates claim that (life) science produces about 2% of worldwide plastic waste even though only 0.1% of the population works in this industry. I’m not sure how accurate these estimates are, but I find them believable considering how much waste I see every day in labs. On the upside, this waste usually stays in contained systems and doesn’t end up in the ocean.
To avoid plastic waste, they use now paper straws …wrapped individualy in plastic. Genius
People in America who use pipet tips: probably 10k People who use plastic straws: 300 mil
Plastic nowadays is inevitable, but at least the use of biodegradable plastic made from modified natural pulps is growing. Plastic is just a generic term for artificial materials and not all of them are harmful, and a lot of these also can be easy recycled. PET are often converted to filaments for 3D printers or yarns for clothing. Bad only if they are thrown into nature or into the sea
Ah, but you must see that recycling costs money! It’s cheaper to pretend you’re recycling and just throw it in the oceans and rivers and landscapes!
I hate it here. We even throw out online returns nearly 100% of the time for all it’s worth, it’s fucking crazy.
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Like seriously, we save SO much money on tips.
Researchers shouldn’t have to live off of tips.
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