Can laboratory plastic consumables be safely reused?

Our results show that laboratory plastic consumables can be reused across multiple cycles without compromising experimental reliability, while significantly reducing environmental impact: up to 4.5 tonnes of CO₂-equivalent avoided per ton of plastic after five reuse cycles.We also quantified plastic waste generation across 30 Montreal research laboratories, highlighting the scale of the opportunity for more sustainable research practices in life sciences.Our latest paper, “Environmental impact and experimental reliability of reusing plastic consumables in wet labs” (npj Materials Sustainability), develops these results.