Below are resources on implementing Green Laboratory criteria in the Communication category. To see all Green Laboratory resources, click here.
Purchasing
Posting and Sourcing Items
When ordering new chemicals or equipment, it is important to look at a variety of places to find the best option.
- The UW Biochemistry Store is a great place to find items you need immediately, rather than having to pay extra for 2-day shipping.
- USwap is a new program on campus that allows users to request items they need AND post and sell items they are trying to get rid of. This allows items on campus to be reused and repurposed, rather than just thrown out.
- UW Surplus is where many departments send their unused items to be sold or repurposed. Here, you can find anything from mass spectrometers to office chairs, and you can send them just about anything for repurposing (excluding chemicals).
- Lastly, MyChem includes a Chemical Exchange program where you can not only find the chemicals you need, but also post/sell your unwanted chemicals.
Energy Efficient Laboratory Equipment
Labs 21 offers a Energy Efficient Laboratory Equipment Wiki for help with finding the best energy efficient equipment for your laboratory.
Items Manufactured from Recycled Materials
UW Procurement Services offers a wide variety of vendors for laboratory and office materials and equipment. Many of these vendors offer items that are manufactured using recycled materials. Students from the University of Washington have also compiled a list of "Green Laboratory Products" available for purchasing through E-Procurement.
Reusability of Purchases
When both a disposable and a reusable option are available, the reusable option is most likely the more sustainable one since it creates less waste. Examples of reusable items for laboratories include reusable volumetric pipettes, reusable protective clothing (when it is possible and safety is not compromised), reusable glass test tubes, and reusable glass Petri dishes. Using reusable glass versions of commonly disposed items can greatly decrease the amount of waste a laboratory produces. Talk to your vendors to find out more about their reusable options.
Lecture Bottle Recycling
Most on-campus suppliers of gas cylinders and lecture bottles are required to accept the empties back. If they do not accept them back, empty lecture bottles may be discarded as scrap metal with UW Recycling. Simply follow the procedure below:
- Unscrew the main valve and detach it.
- Flush the bottle with an inert gas or rinse it with an appropriate solvent.
Inventory of Refrigerators and Freezers
Taking regular inventory of your freezer/refrigerator ensures that old, irrelevant samples aren't stealing precious space and energy. It also ensures that a new refrigerator/freezer is not unnecessarily purchased.
Schedule an inventory day once a month. On the designated day, have a laboratory member (or group of laboratory members) take inventory of the freezer/refrigerator.