King’s College London 4BBY1050 Sustainable biomedical research

Tutor Group 3

Can biomedical labs kick their plastic habit?

Where lab plastic ends up today, four ways to keep it in use, and how we would test that reuse is safe

By Aykhan Bayramli, Bhanjnaam Kaur, Elif Radde, Emily, Ingrid and Ploen

Read the interactive poster All 11 references, with links

Today: a linear labTomorrow: a circular lab

  1. Made from oil and gasRecycling
  2. Used onceBiodegradable PLA
  3. AutoclavedReuse
  4. Burned or buriedAI monitoring

Diagram. Today, lab plastic is made from oil and gas, used once, autoclaved, then burned or buried. Tomorrow, recycling, biodegradable PLA, reuse and AI monitoring keep it in a loop.

Four solutions keep lab plastic in use.Each dot is a piece of lab plastic, coloured by type as in Fig. 2. Press Tomorrow to close the loop.Each dot is a piece of lab plastic, coloured by type as in Fig. 2. Four solutions keep it in use.

The problem

Today: a linear lab

Science runs on single-use plastic. Pipette tips, tubes and dishes arrive sterile, cost little and are thrown away after one use, as are gloves. This keeps experiments free of contamination. The result is a mountain of waste: an estimated 5.5 million tonnes from labs worldwide in 2014 [2]. Most of it follows a one-way route (Fig. 1).

  1. Step 1 Made from oil and gas

    90%

    of plastics’ greenhouse-gas emissions come from making them from fossil fuels [3]

  2. Step 2 Used once

    116 kg

    of plastic thrown away per scientist, per year, on average [1]

  3. Step 3 Autoclaved

    87%

    of one university’s residual lab waste was plastic that could be recycled, but autoclaving turns it into general waste [4]

  4. Step 4 Burned or buried

    91%

    of the world’s plastic waste is never recycled: 19% is burned and almost half is buried in landfill [3]

Fig. 1 — The one-way life of lab plastic [1, 3, 4]

The usual suspects

Ten everyday items make up 87% of lab plastic waste by weight [1]

Tap an item to find its plastic in Fig. 2.

What is lab plastic made of?

Show the data as a table
Lab plastic waste by weight in seven labs
PlasticTypical itemsShare by weight
Polystyrene (PS)dishes, well plates, pipettes42%
Polypropylene (PP)tips, tubes, tip boxes32%
Polyethylene & nitrilegloves, bags13%
Mixed plasticspackaging13%
Fig. 2 — Lab plastic waste by weight in seven labs; one square = 1% [1]

Your lab’s plastic

8

About 928 kg of plastic waste a year

This uses the average of 116 kg per scientist per year from seven audited labs. Across those labs it ranged from 32 to 237 kg per person, so a lab this size could throw away 258 to 1,895 kg [1].

Why it matters

Health

4.5×

In one study, patients with microplastics in their neck-artery plaque had a 4.5 times higher risk of heart attack, stroke or death over about three years [5].

About this study
Patients
257 people who had surgery to clear a narrowed neck (carotid) artery, followed for about 34 months
Found
polyethylene in the removed plaque of 150 of them (58%)
Result
hazard ratio 4.53 (95% CI 2.00 to 10.27) for heart attack, stroke or death
Caution
an observational link: it does not prove that microplastics cause harm

Planet

3.4%

of global greenhouse-gas emissions come from plastics, and 22% of plastic waste is dumped, burned in the open or leaks into nature [3].

The numbers
2019
plastics produced 1.8 billion tonnes of greenhouse gases over their life cycle
90%
of that came from making plastic from fossil fuels
9%
of plastic waste was recycled in the end (Fig. 1, step 4)

Ethics

2025

Wellcome-funded labs had to earn a green-lab award, such as LEAF, by the end of 2025 [6]. All King’s wet labs already have one [7].

The rules
Wellcome
lab-based researchers had to reach at least the minimum level of a scheme such as LEAF or My Green Lab by the end of 2025 [6]
King’s
100% of wet labs are LEAF-accredited at bronze or higher, across 44 departments and 64 teams [7]

Four solutions

Tomorrow: a circular lab

Recycling

Recycling symbol on a blue bin
Photo by Compagnons on Unsplash

Disposable materials made of polypropylene (PP) and polystyrene (PS) are widely used in biomedical laboratories. Despite the recycling potential of many of these plastics, many end up in incineration because of biofouling risks, material mixing and waste disposal processes [4] (Fig. 3).

Limitation

The actual environmental benefits still depend on the recycling facility, transport distance, and energy consumption.

87% of one university’s residual lab waste was recyclable plastic 87% recyclable

85%of lab staff would recommend the scheme

up to10.6 tof CO2e a year could be saved by one university

Fig. 3 — Separate collection of lab plastic at one German university [4]

Biodegradable PLA

Corn cobs, a source of plant sugars for PLA
Photo by Jen Theodore on Unsplash

Poly(lactic acid) (PLA), a polymer capable of being produced from renewable biomass feedstocks, has the potential to biodegrade under specific conditions and thus has become a research object for alternative materials in the laboratory [8] (Fig. 4).

Limitation

The heat resistance of ordinary PLA is weak, and it is not suitable to directly replace all the experimental consumables that need high temperature sterilisation.

E. coli grown on each dish (billion CFU per mL)

PS3.0

PLA1.5

Same order of magnitude: the authors found PLA did not harm growth

Thermometer: PLA softens at 55 °C, while an autoclave runs at 121 °C 121 °C autoclave 55 °C PLA softens PLA dish

20 °C

Below 55 °C the dish keeps its shape.

Show the data as a table
Growth of E. coli on PS and PLA dishes, and key temperatures
E. coli on a PS dishabout 3.0 × 109 CFU/mL
E. coli on a PLA dishabout 1.5 × 109 CFU/mL
PLA heat-deflection temperature55 °C
Standard autoclave cycle121 °C
Fig. 4 — Bacteria still grew well on PLA, but it softens long before 121 °C [8]

Reuse

Gloved hand holding a clean glass beaker in a lab
Photo by RephiLe water on Unsplash

Many ‘single-use’ items can be cleaned and used again. At Guy’s Cancer Centre, a washer cleans and dries a plastic cell-counting slide in about 20 seconds, and each slide can be reused up to 50 times [9]. Reusing a 50 mL tube five times cuts its climate impact by 70% [10] (Fig. 5).

Limitation

Washing costs water, energy and staff time. Reused labware performs like new, but the study’s authors note that this does not prove it is microbe-free [10].

up to50×

reuses of one counting slide at King’s [9]

  • About 20 s to wash and dry a slide
  • About 1,600 slides, 6 kg of plastic and £3,200 saved since July 2024

Climate impact of a 50 mL tube [10]

  1. 100%Single use
  2. 58%1 reuse
  3. 30%5 reuses
  4. 18%50 reuses

5 reuses: each tube is used 6 times, and its climate impact falls by 70%.

Fig. 5 — Slide reuse at King’s [9]; climate impact of reusing 50 mL tubes [10]

AI monitoring

Four colour-coded waste bins against a grey wall
Photo by Pawel Czerwinski on Unsplash

Recycling fails when plastics are mixed or put in the wrong bin. A camera-based ‘smart bin’ uses artificial intelligence (AI) to recognise each item and show the right bin. In studies, AI sorted waste with up to 99.95% accuracy and cut collection distances by up to 37% [11] (Fig. 6).

Limitation

These results come from household and city waste, not labs [11]. A lab system needs training on lab items and money to install, and a camera cannot see contamination.

A used item passes a camera with AI, which shows whether it belongs in recycling (PP, PS), clinical waste or general waste.

Sorting accuracy in published studies [11]

Fig. 6 — How a camera-based smart bin sorts waste, and how accurate it is [11]

Can you beat the smart bin?

Sort six used lab items using these three rules:

  • touched cells, microbes or blood: clinical waste
  • clean PP or PS: recycling
  • anything else: general waste

Simplified for this game. Real labs follow their own waste rules.

Comparison

Which works best?

Table 1. Our group’s rating of the four solutions, from 1 (weak) to 3 (strong)
SolutionPlastic savedReady nowLow costLab-safeEvidence
1Recycling3 of 32 of 32 of 33 of 33 of 3
2Biodegradable PLA1 of 31 of 31 of 32 of 31 of 3
3Reuse3 of 33 of 33 of 3not yet tested2 of 3
4AI monitoring2 of 31 of 31 of 33 of 31 of 3

Table 1 — Our group’s rating from the evidence above. Reuse scores best, but its safety is untested: see our Spotlight (5).

Weigh it yourself

Set how much each criterion matters to you. Each score is the average number of dots, weighted by your settings, out of 3.

Reuse is not yet tested for lab safety (see section 5). Score it:

    Spotlight: biology

    Our proposed test

    Proposed test: not yet run

    Is a washed plastic slide biologically clean?

    One King’s lab already washes and reuses plastic cell-counting slides up to 50 times [9], and reused labware works as well as new [10]. But neither source directly tested washed items for live microbes or leftover cells. We would test this before reuse spreads to other labs (Fig. 7).

    Prediction: slides washed up to 50 times will be as clean and as accurate as new ones.

    1. 1 Samples: 3 slides of each

      • Newcontrol
      • 1×washed
      • 10×washed
      • 50×washed
      • Usednot washed

    2. 2 Checks on every slide

      • Agar plateany live microbes?
      • Blank countany leftover cells?
      • Bead countstill accurate?

    3. 3 Decision

      Try it: choose the results for one washed slide.

      Agar plate: any live microbes?
      Blank count: any leftover cells?
      Bead count: still accurate?
      • Clean and accurate: reuse up to 50 times
      • A few microbes: wash longer, then re-test
      • Not clean or not accurate: keep it single-use

      These are possible outcomes, not results. We have not run this test.

    Fig. 7 — Our proposed test of washed cell-counting slides [9, 10]

    Take-home message

    No single fix is enough. Labs should reuse what can be proven clean, recycle the clean PP and PS that is left, and use PLA and AI where they fit. Together, these turn a linear lab into a circular one.

    References

    Numbered in the order they first appear on our poster. Each link opens the original article or page.

    1. Weber PM, Michelsen C, Kerou M. What’s in our bin? Labs kick off and demand the transition towards a circular economy for lab plastics. EMBO Rep. 2025;26(2):297–302. doi:10.1038/s44319-024-00360-x
    2. Urbina MA, Watts AJR, Reardon EE. Labs should cut plastic waste too. Nature. 2015;528(7583):479. doi:10.1038/528479c
    3. OECD. Global plastics outlook: economic drivers, environmental impacts and policy options. Paris: OECD Publishing; 2022. doi:10.1787/de747aef-en
    4. Schell BR, Emmerich A-K, Nazneen A, Widenmeyer M, Weidenkaff A, Bruns N. From waste to resource: the untapped value of the separate collection of single-use laboratory plastics to enable recycling. PLOS Sustain Transform. 2026;5(9):e0000225. doi:10.1371/journal.pstr.0000225
    5. Marfella R, Prattichizzo F, Sardu C, Fulgenzi G, Graciotti L, Spadoni T, et al. Microplastics and nanoplastics in atheromas and cardiovascular events. N Engl J Med. 2024;390(10):900–10. doi:10.1056/NEJMoa2309822
    6. Wellcome. Wellcome sets environmental sustainability standards for researchers, as wider goals to support the UK research sector are launched [Internet]. London: Wellcome; 2024 Apr 24 [cited 2026 Oct 27]. Available from: https://wellcome.org/insights/articles/wellcome-sustainability-standards
    7. King’s College London. King’s amongst first to achieve 100% lab sustainability accreditation [Internet]. London: King’s College London; 2025 Jul 21 [cited 2026 Oct 27]. Available from: https://www.kcl.ac.uk/news/kings-amongst-first-to-achieve-100-lab-sustainability-accreditation
    8. O Loughlin J, Herward B, Doherty D, Bhagabati P, Kelleher SM, Fahy S, et al. Bio-based polylactic acid labware as a sustainable alternative for microbial cultivation in life science laboratories. Heliyon. 2024;10(21):e39846. doi:10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e39846
    9. King’s College London. Washing away plastic waste in cancer research [Internet]. London: King’s College London; 2025 May 6 [cited 2026 Oct 27]. Available from: https://www.kcl.ac.uk/washing-away-plastic-waste-in-cancer-research
    10. Mansouri NS, Milano F, Dimidschstein M, Lavertu M. Environmental impact and experimental reliability of reusing plastic consumables in wet labs. npj Mater Sustain. 2026;4(1):21. doi:10.1038/s44296-026-00108-9
    11. Fang B, Yu J, Chen Z, Osman AI, Farghali M, Ihara I, et al. Artificial intelligence for waste management in smart cities: a review. Environ Chem Lett. 2023;21(4):1959–89. doi:10.1007/s10311-023-01604-3

    Image credits and licences

    Photos

    All four from Unsplash, under the Unsplash License.

    Illustrations

    From Bioicons, converted to WebP and cropped by us:

    Charts, icons and the loop diagram are drawn in code from the data in the references. Fonts: Bebas Neue and Source Sans 3, both under the SIL Open Font License.

    Who made this

    • Aykhan Bayramli
    • Bhanjnaam Kaur
    • Elif Radde
    • Emily
    • Ingrid
    • Ploen

    Tutor Group 3, 4BBY1050 Sustainable biomedical research, King’s College London, October 2026.

    How we made this site

    We built this site with help from an AI assistant (Claude, by Anthropic), which wrote the code and a first draft of some text. Every number links to its source in the reference list.