Saving >62% Plastic Waste in SDS-PAGEs
Imagine you could save the weight of a chocolate bar in plastic every time you conduct an experiment! Today I want to convince you that this is certainly possible. Let us discover how much waste we can save every time we prepare an SDS-PAGE, a rather short and straightforward protocol – nevertheless, there is a lot of potential for optimization! Work Smart, Not Hard Always create as many gels as possible and as few as necessary. This means that if you are planning to run multiple SDS-PAGEs within the next week, prepare 2 or 4 gels at a time.-> Advantage: This will halve or reduce to a quarter the amount of waste and time used. Following The Right Order Use the following pipetting order from dedicated stocks to reuse one serological pipette instead of three (cutting your waste by one-third): Ensure the volumes for each are large enough to pipette conveniently.-> You cut your waste by one-third and save the time required to exchange pipettes. Note: Be sure to use best practices and expel the liquid completely. The risk of contamination is minimal since you only take up fluid (without mixing), and this wouldn’t be a concern anyway, as you use dedicated stocks. However, we still aim to work as carefully as possible. For SDS, 10% | N,N,N′,N′-tetramethylethylenediamine (TEMED) | Ammonium persulfate (APS), you use a single tip for each. Traditional Approach Sustainable Approach 28.323 g vs. 10.383 g -> 63% reduction Keep Them With You Each time you reuse your Falcon tubes (Tris buffers, acrylamide – SDS is often stored in a single 15 mL tube, APS and TEMED in smaller tubes), you cut down your waste even further. For us, reusing them for half a year has never caused any issues. However, for simplicity, let’s assume you reuse them 10 times: Traditional Approach Sustainable Approach 384.9 g vs. 38.5 g -> 90% savings = Combined, these measures save more than 350 g of plastic, equivalent to the weight of 3.5 chocolate bars – just in plastic waste! Note: We need 2x 50 mL tubes to mix our gels, so for each approach, add 25.66 g of waste to the total. Bonus TipHow do you know when your gel has polymerized sufficiently?Since it is advisable to prepare a bit of excess solution in case you spill something or your apparatus is not entirely sealed, keep this remainder in your preparation tube. You will know the gel has polymerized when the leftover solution sets.(Of note, polymerized gel is much less toxic than the liquid form, so never discard it into the sink!) You can then leave the gel in the tube or throw it out later and reuse the tube. If you remove the gel, just be gentle and ensure no clumps are left behind. If in doubt, it’s better to discard the tube! Weight of Items We Used (varies by manufacturer)
The Shortest Complete List of Sustainable Actions
This list is certainly not exhaustive since scientists come up with new amazing practices to make their laboratories more sustainable every day. However, here is as much inspiration as we can give: Reducing waste Improving experimental conduct and design Reducing paper, water and energy use Paper Water Energy Changing procurement and purchasing processes Using equipment Optimizing waste treatment Changing for internal organization Involving institute governance Optimizing HVAC
Ask Me Anything – 10 Questions About Sustainability Answered
Question 1: I work with animals, mice to be precise. Are there best practices or opportunities to be more sustainable? 1. Optimize Experimental Design Minimize: the number of animals used by ensuring experiments have sufficient statistical power and address specific research questions effectively. This reduces unnecessary animal usage and associated costs. 2. Consider Breeding Practices: Efficient breeding strategies are essential, especially for genetically modified mice, to avoid unnecessary surplus animals and overwork for researchers. 3. Reduce Waste and Resource Consumption: Implement practices to minimize waste generation, such as composting animal bedding, which requires coordination but can significantly reduce environmental impact. 4. Balance Sterility and Reduction: Do not impair cleanliness levels in animal facilities but plan your stay (potentially with coworkers) to reduce the amount of personal protective equipment worn. 5. Optimize Experimental Procedures: Streamline laboratory protocols to minimize resource usage, such as reducing pipette tip consumption or maximizing cell yield from harvested organs. Literature: Some ideas for optimizing statistics: A / B / C Question 2: What is possible to make more sustainable when it comes to experiments? 1. Review Experimental Strategies: Did you optimize statistics in terms of power and significance? Do you have a solid strategy, e.g., efficient implementation of controls or avoiding using painkillers without known mechanisms as controls. 2. Implement the Six R’s: Focus on reducing and reusing materials. For instance, pipette tips can be reused by pipetting water before DNA, and wash solutions can be prepared directly in petri dishes to minimize tube usage. Also, consider using the same culture dish for routine passaging after thorough validation. Sometimes it is possible to pour wash-solutions instead of pipetting them etc. 3. Method Optimization: It depends very much on your set-up, e.g., investigate greener methods such as HPLC-MS, which streamline workflows and require fewer sample preparations. Consider using alternative eluents like ethanol instead of acetonitrile, although potential drawbacks like increased HPLC pressure and altered UV cutoff must be considered. In the live event I mentioned: 6R and some inspiration for HPLC Question 3: What is meant by regulation in sustainability? Regulation in sustainability refers to laws and requirements set by national or supranational entities, such as the European Union, that compel organizations to report on their sustainability efforts and adhere to certain standards. Currently, this primarily affects industries and companies, but there’s a possibility it may extend to academic research laboratories in the future. For companies, compliance with sustainability regulations may involve the creation of sustainability reports, which are becoming as critical as financial statements. The EU’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) may necessitate reporting on a wide range of data points, potentially exceeding 1,000. In laboratories, sustainability regulation may require reporting on activities and environmental impacts, such as Scope 3 emissions from procurement and purchasing. Sustainability officers or designated personnel may be tasked with collecting and managing this data. Regulation can also influence purchasing decisions, potentially requiring organizations to consider sustainability factors when acquiring products or chemicals, akin to current hiring practices where equal opportunities are provided to all applicants. You can watch our previous event on that topic as well : ) Question 4: We need administration to join in. But how? 1. Regulation and Reporting Waiting for regulations to mandate sustainability reporting or initiatives can provide a framework for administration involvement (unfortunate but true…) 2. Grassroots Initiatives Scientists and staff can actively prompt administration by demonstrating the value and feasibility of sustainability initiatives. By proactively suggesting and implementing sustainability measures, staff can show administration the potential benefits and garner support for broader initiatives. 3. Align with Administrative Priorities Tailoring sustainability initiatives to align with administrative priorities can help garner support. For example, emphasizing the educational value of sustainability initiatives can appeal to universities focused on teaching and education. Demonstrating cost savings, reduced maintenance or risk reduction associated with sustainability measures can be quite powerful. However, sometimes, personal buy-in can be sufficient. E.g., an amazing colleague called Star Scott has convinced administration by making them emotionally involved after sharing that their lab waste ended up in nearby socially disadvantaged communities. Question 5: What are Carbon Credits? Carbon credits are a form of tradable permit or certificate that represents the right to emit one ton of carbon dioxide or an equivalent amount of greenhouse gases. They are a mechanism used to offset emissions by investing in projects that reduce or remove greenhouse gas emissions elsewhere. Here’s how carbon credits typically (should) work: 1. Emission Reduction Projects: Carbon offset projects can take various forms, such as reforestation, renewable energy generation, methane capture from landfills, or energy efficiency initiatives. These projects are implemented to either reduce or remove greenhouse gas emissions from the atmosphere. 2. Certification and Verification: Once a project is implemented, it undergoes a certification process to ensure that it meets certain standards and criteria set by various carbon offsetting organizations. 3. Issuance of Carbon Credits: Upon successful verification, carbon credits are issued to the project based on the amount of emissions reduced or removed. Each carbon credit typically represents one ton of carbon dioxide equivalent (tCO2e) that has been mitigated by the project. 4. Trading and Sale Carbon: credits can be bought and sold on carbon markets, allowing companies or individuals to offset their own emissions by purchasing credits generated by emission reduction projects. 5. Offsetting Emissions: By purchasing carbon credits, companies or individuals can offset their own carbon footprint, effectively neutralizing their emissions by investing in projects that mitigate emissions elsewhere. However, while carbon credits are intended to incentivize emission reductions and support sustainable development initiatives, there are huge issues with their effectiveness and integrity: 1. Additionality: There are many example where some carbon offset projects may not be additional, meaning they would have occurred anyway even without the sale of carbon credits. This raises questions about the real environmental impact of offsetting activities. 2. Longevity: Some offset projects, such as reforestation, face challenges related to permanence. For example, a forest that is planted to sequester carbon could be subject to deforestation in
A Concrete Guide To Greener Laboratories For Beginners
How do you feel when I tell you that by following these 5 simple steps you already walked half the way to a green laboratory. It is all about you having an open mind when doing your research. This is all it needs to be more sustainable!