Team:Montpellier/Human Practices
HUMAN PRACTICES
I) Summary
At the beginning of the summer, most of the wetlab team members were shocked by the amount of plastic waste produced every day as a byproduct of our research. So we started asking ourselves some questions. How much waste do we produce? How could we reduce it? Do the other iGEM teams produce this much ?
We also noticed that non-contaminated waste is thrown away in biological or chemical waste bins, even though in principle it could be recycled. But laboratory consumables cannot be treated in the recycling waste management. So if we want to reduce our environmental impact, we need to reduce our plastic consumption.
To raise awareness about the amount of plastic used in labs, we set up a collaboration with iGEM Nantes, to create a visual representation of the amount of waste produced in our laboratory. This provided an artistic visual answer to the question : What is the environmental impact of an iGEM project?
Then we designed surveys to understand which lab consumables are used most and how waste was treated in other iGEM team labs. The ultimate goal is to find and suggest solutions for greener lab practice. We designed a notice with concrete and easy tips to implement to reduce environmental impact in the lab. This notice will be distributed to labs.
Finally, we propose a new iGEM medal: the Green Medal to encourage future iGEM generations to integrate environmental problematics and awareness in their experimental design and lab practice.
II) Waste production analysis
Plastic waste production at the CBS:
To estimate the environmental impact of a research laboratory, we quantified the waste produced by our host lab, the CBS in one year. We had the opportunity to meet Karine de Guillen, the person in charge of health and safety at the CBS laboratory. She helped us understand the entire process and provided us with quantitative data (Figure 1) to analyse.
In 2018, our laboratory consumed 40 white bins of 37L of solid chemical waste and 240 boxes 50L of solid biological waste.
From these data, we were able to determine that in 2018 there was a consumption of 12m^3 of solid biological waste and 1.48m^3 of solid chemical waste. This waste is mainly contaminated plastic. We were then interested in the quantity of plastic produced by our laboratory over a year.
To estimate the weight of the chemicals and biological waste product per year in our lab from the data collected, we first weigh the differents bins (yellow one for biological waste materials, and white one for the solid chemical waste materials).
After weighing several bins, empty and then full, we gathered the data and made an average that gave us an average weight of 2.75kg for a chemical bin, and 3.8kg for a biological bin.
We then determined the volume of these same bins by measuring them : 36L white binsand 50L yellow bins, which was consistent with the data provided by our laboratory.
To calculate the relative weight of this waste volume, we multiplied the number of bins by the average weight of a full bin.
In other words, for solid biological waste bins, we have taken into account an average weight of 3.8 kg: 240 x 3.8 = about 912 kg of waste per year (so mainly plastic waste, taking into account a small liquid error in falcon tubes for example).
For white bins of solid chemical waste we have made the same calculation, with an average weight of 2.75kg. We obtained a total weight of 110kg.
However, our laboratory has just made available a new type of bin: blue bins for non-toxic chemical waste, which will reduce the amount of plastic thrown in yellow bins (such as gloves that have not touched biological waste) and in white bins in order to reduce treatment costs. Because those kind of bins are too recent in our laboratory, we do not yet have data on the quantity and volume of waste about them.
If we normalize the weight of plastic waste by the number of researchers at the CBS, we conclude that CBS workers produce about 10 kg of plastic waste per year. According to the European Union statistics, 31 kg of plastic packaging waste is produced per person and per year [1] These figures are hard to compare because not all CBS employees actually do experiments, and this may also vary along the year (for instance when people are in conferences, teaching, analyzing data…). Considering this we can tell that plastic waste production in the CBS is in the same order of magnitude as household waste production.
III) Artwork
We wanted to raise awareness about the amount of plastic used and thrown away in the lab.
So we decided to make a piece of art to illustrate this. this was done in collaboration with iGEM Nantes. We aimed to obtain a visual representation of the amount of waste produced in our laboratory. For this purpose, a plexiglass structure was built and filled with the plastic waste produced over 3 weeks by our team’s (iGEM Montpellier) experiments.
All the plastic waste used by our team in the lab was collected, decontaminated, painted and finally placed in our box. We called our sculpture “Cubi”.
Methodology:
Cubi's mission is to raise awareness of the amount of waste that can be generated by research. For this it travelled 830 km to join the art exhibition organized by the iGEM Nantes team. Our sculpture was exhibited from September 25th to October 18th at the Maison des Hommes et des Techniques. A short description by the work explained the artistic process (figure n°4).
IV) Global waste production and management
By reading the literature and researching the environmental impact of laboratory waste, we discovered that approximately 5.5 million tonnes of plastic waste are produced each year in life science laboratories alone, including items such as pipette tips, nitrile gloves, cell culture vials, etc...[8] This accounts for 1.8% of total plastic waste produced in the world.
There are 20,500 institutions worldwide that are involved in biological research and are likely to participate in this excessive consumption of plastics. As responsible scientists we have the duty to minimize disposable plastics use.
To propose efficient solutions to reduce our environmental impact, we first need to analyze the type of consumables that are used most. We thus conducted a survey to estimate the average quantity of plastic consumables used during a typical week of experiments. The kind of items used by experimentalists will likely depend on the type of experiments they are running. If we want our analysis to be representative, we need to survey a wide panel of researchers.
We first sent the survey to our team and the researchers at the Center for Structural Biochemistry (Centre de Biochimie Structurale [CBS]) based in Montpellier, France.
Subsequently, we adapted the questionnaire to monitor the practice of other iGEM teams.
a- Survey on the quantity of biological waste (CBS)
Researchers were asked to document how many items they used in several categories (tips, Falcon tubes, Eppendorf tubes, Petri dishes….) every day for a week.
This gave us the total number of plastic items that were used and thrown away in the laboratory during one week of experimentation. Then we weighed each material to relate these numbers to plastic mass. For this study, we followed the activity of 10 researchers for one week. In figures 2 and 3 we present the processed results of our survey.
Interestingly, the amount of plastic waste generated by researcher (270g/week) can be extrapolated to a total of 11,9kg/year if we consider 44 working weeks/year. This fits well with the data discussed in the first part of the study (10kg/researcher/year). This comforts us that the data we collected are very likely representative, even if the duration and the number of participants were small.
While the researchers followed during this study work mainly with molecular biology tools, we are aware that each type of research may require different types of consumables and that they are not all represented here. It should also be noted that the activity can vary from one week to another depending on the needs of users, but not surprisingly we can notice that in our results the most used consumables are gloves, tips, petri dishes, tubes. We believe that it is above all on these frequently used items that everyone should make efforts to limit excessive consumption, by trying to apply the 3Rs rule (Reduce, Recycle, Reuse).
However, as recycling is not an option, we propose to adapt it (Reduce, Replace, Reuse).
This concept along with concrete tips will be developed below (part VI).
b- Survey on waste management by iGEM teams
Laboratory waste management is a complex process. Normally, all biological waste must be incinerated in order to limit the risk of infection by killing any form of micro-organism or toxin it contains. Chemical waste can be incinerated, and where possible it can be treated, regenerated and reused.
In our study we interviewed iGEM teams from different countries to find out if they were aware of how waste from their laboratories were treated.
We sent a survey called « Environment – friendly iGEM teams» to all iGEM teams. We got answers from Mexico, Canada, Costa Rica, Estonia, Switzerland, Germany and France.
French teams that have collaborated with us are iGEM Grenoble, iGEM Poitiers, iGEM Sorbonne U, iGEM IONIS Paris, iGEM Nantes, iGEM Strasbourg, iGEM GO Paris Saclay, iGEM Evry Paris-Saclay and iGEM Pasteur Paris. The international teams that have collaborated with us are iGEM itsoeh México, iGEM Tartu TUIT Estonia, iGEM Costa Rica, iGEM EPFL Switzerland, iGEM Stuttgart Germany. F.
The questionnaires showed us that 35% of international teams and 20% of French teams are unaware of the treatment of biological waste. For chemical waste, 50% of international teams and 60% of French teams ignore their treatment.
These figures remain very high and reflect a lack of awareness of waste management among young scientists.
Laboratories produce a large quantity of by-products, it is a fact, but it should be noted that the management circuit for this waste is very complex because of the level of risk it can cause to the population and the environment. By asking around, we were able to see that in France, the government pays particular attention to the management of this waste with strict regulations. For example, waste packaging must comply with the regulations, standards and ADR [6] decree. Packaging must also be adapted to the type of waste, allowing easy identification of specific disposal methods.
- To conclude: the current recycling of this plastic waste is problematic for various reasons:
- They are often considered as non-recyclable due to the nature of their contamination, which makes them too dangerous or very complicated to decontaminate.
- In cases where their contamination is low, institutes are very often not well equipped to be able to treat the plastics that are disposed of in a sustainable way so that they can be reused.
Finally, we believe that what prevents most of the plastic waste from the laboratory from being recycled is the difficulty of logistics that it involves. In order for a biologically treated plastic to be recycled, it must be properly cleaned and sterilized in an autoclave before it can be sent to recycling company. Despite this, even by ensuring that these steps are strictly followed, many standard recycling plants do not accept them for health and safety reasons.
As the management of this waste is very complex, we have considered solutions to reduce the quantity of plastics produced by the laboratories' scientific and technological activities.
V) How to reduce laboratory waste
Plastic is everywhere in the laboratory, and nowadays it is increasingly replacing the use of glass. But as in everyday life, an adapted 3Rs rule (Reuse, Replace, Reduce) can be applied in the laboratory. Despite the fact that disposable plastics are more practical, it should be kept in mind that their excessive use has a high environmental and economical impact.
So we thought of some simple and quick solutions to reduce the amount of plastic we use in research laboratories, but also of solutions that companies providing consumables to research laboratories could put in place in order to reduce their ecological impact.
Ecological Good Laboratory Practices (GLP):
- Use washable and reusable glass containers and pipettes instead of plastic ones
- Reuse gloves when handling does not require much sterility and they are not soiled by biological or chemical contaminants.
- Design properly the experiment to limit the number of consumables used (the realization of master mix for PCR in molecular biology is a very good example of action to reduce the number of tubes).
- Keep the same tubes to tare the scales or balance the centrifuge
- Buy pipette tips in bulk (thin plastic bags instead of thick packaging)
- Reuse pipette tips if pipetting from the same source into sterile containers
- Cut plastic labels in half (advantage: two for the price of one)
- Replace plastic petri dishes with glass petri dishes. It is possible to sterilize the glass in order to destroy the bacteria and to be able to reuse them.
- Consider equipment sharing, donating or renting
- Get your lab organized (with an up to date inventory)
- Switch off the equipment you do not use (light, computer, lab material, etc...)
- Replace dangerous chemicals product with greener alternatives
- Teach students and the personels to raise their awareness around sustainable lab and good practices.
Altogether, these tips will save you money and reduce the environmental impact of your research!
Some companies and societies have already started to implement some actions to reduce their plastic consumption, such as Labcon [6], which reduced the plastic content by replacing the outer packaging of their products with recycled cardboard. Buying products from eco-friendly companies is a good way to reduce your environmental impact.
- In conclusion, based on the actions of the two companies mentioned above, we believe that other companies supplying laboratories can take simple and effective actions on their products such as:
- Replace plastic packaging with vegetable plastics or cardboard.
- Decreasing the thickness of the tubes and columns.
We also believe that grant organizations should put in place incentives to reduce plastic waste, for example by funding laboratory washing and recycling facilities, autoclaves and possibly requiring more eco-friendly laboratory practices in the grant application process.
We are aware that laboratory work already implies many constraints, requiring a lot of time and concentration. Applying these various tips seems complicated because it means changing your habits. In order to help researchers remember these tips and apply them, we had the idea of creating a flyer that could accompany life in the lab.
VI) Perspectives : How to become a green lab
To deepen our study, we conducted a survey to identify best practices for energy–saving and water-saving measures and reducing waste in the laboratory. We also offered suggestions to iGEM teams to reduce their environmental impact. In this section, we are interested in the biology laboratories with which iGEM teams are associated. We compared the eco-responsibility of each laboratory and the progress made by each in terms of ecology.
The following diagrams highlight the similarities and differences between the French teams and international teams.
We note that most of the teams, whether international or French, take actions to reduce their environmental impact. There are disparities between the teams depending on the environmental issue (electricity, water, waste…).
Interestingly, in the United States, federal regulation requires sharing equipment and avoid the duplication of equipment purchases through federal funding. Similar requirements exist elsewhere., As a matter of fact, equipment sharing is more frequent in international teams (50%) than in France (16.7%). This shows how incentives at the funding level can have an impact on laboratory practice.
Most importantly, for every type of environmental-friendly action proposed, there are teams able to answer “always”. This shows that it is possible to take concrete actions and that there is room for improvement in our lab practices to minimize electricity, water and plastic consumption, as well as limiting the amount of equipment.
VII) A new medal for iGEM : Green medal
Following our surveys, we had the idea to propose to future iGEM generations a specific medal criterion that will be awarded according to the efforts of the teams to reduce their plastic consumption.
- Proposition of Criteria for winning the green medal:
- Propose to your hosting lab a concrete action to reduce their environmental impact
- Take concrete and quantifiable action to reduce your own environmental impact as an iGEM team
- Measurable results
- Practices, project(s) and/or initiative(s) are innovative and/or unique
- Clearly articulates why they are deserving of the award
- Reach as many people as possible with your ecological project.
[1] How much plastic packaging waste do you produce? - Product - Eurostat
[6] http://www.labcon.com/productdesign.html
[7] https://timeforchange.org/plastic-bags-and-plastic-bottles-CO2-emissions