• Question: is your project good/safe for the environment?

    Asked by anon-361216 on 24 Mar 2023.
    • Photo: Courtney Povey

      Courtney Povey answered on 24 Mar 2023:

      My science work involves a lot of plastic use which isn’t good for the environment but things are changing now and more things can be recycled or reused, for example we now recycle our pipette tips they are no longer just wasted. Hopefully, things will continue to improve.

    • Photo: John Clark-Corrigall

      John Clark-Corrigall answered on 24 Mar 2023:

      We use a lot of plastic in our lab, but we’re pretty good for sustainability in other aspects. We have metal or glass equipment for things that can be reused. We recycle a lot, boxes for pipette tips, the tips themselves, making sure equipment isn’t left on standby. We still have a good way to go though!

    • Photo: Bernice Ridley

      Bernice Ridley answered on 24 Mar 2023:

      We consider sustainability to be very important and therefore I think that we are, but of course all manufacture uses resources and energy.

    • Photo: Benjamin Foster

      Benjamin Foster answered on 24 Mar 2023:

      When I started in the lab, we seemed to use a lot single-use plastics, and lots and lots of pipette tips! I have managed to curb much of this by using glass pipettes, re-useable gel loading syringes, more glass bottles, plus other things. We also have better recycling waste streams than previously and some of the pipette boxes can be re-used by the supplier. Lots of equipment is very energy hungry too, so if they are not being used (e.g. incubators, computers, microscopes) they are switched off to prevent much wasted energy. There are more and more schemes to enhance the sustainability of lab-based research, including LEAF instigated by UCL in London.

    • Photo: Nazakat Merchant

      Nazakat Merchant answered on 24 Mar 2023:

      We use a lot of data and store/send lots of data digitally so dont waste paper and trees!

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