How COVID is forcing us into our Green Intentions Februari: using more glassware

During the current worldwide shortage of lab-plastics and -consumables, the whole COVID situation is giving us something positive: it is forcing us to be creative and naturally move into greener lab behavior. At the end of 2020, we published a list of 12 green lab intentions, one for every month. And today, we would like to talk a bit more about our green lab intention for February, the use of glassware. Is it better than plastic? And how to use glass best?

Let’s talk glass

Glass used to be a very common material in our daily lab life. Pipettes were made of glass, centrifuge tubes and petri dishes were made of glass, and we would all sterilize our glass bottles for cell culture in the autoclave. Glass is great, it doesn’t interact with chemicals (which plastic can) and can be easily heated without melting. Over the years, things have changed, mostly for safety and practical reasons. Plastic became the easier option; it is cheaper (which is debatable, probably only in the short term) and safer, but most of all, it is a time-efficient option not having to wash your glassware. This is how glass slowly lost territory from plastic and started to collect dust in most of our cupboards.

So… then why would you use glass?

First and foremost, glass is great. As I mentioned above, glass is extremely thermo-resistant, it doesn’t interact with almost any chemicals, and it prevents oxidation, which can happen through plastic tubes. Moreover, every plastic tube, dish, and reservoir that you use is a single use plastic. You use it, it is contaminated, and you throw it in the bin. You cannot even throw it in the plastic recycling bin, as it isn’t clean plastic. So, while we are all trying to ban single use plastics in our daily life (goodbye straws, plastic cutlery, and single-use bags), the lab is full of it! You can guess my next thought: glass isn’t single-use. If you take care of it, you can reuse it many times, you can sterilize it, and even have it repaired. Unfortunately, the glass repair department in the Radboud is closed, but the fact that we had one tells me a lot. Glass is sustainable.

Buying new plastic vs. washing and autoclaving – what is better?

The jury is still out on the specific numbers, but this is a very good question. What is the benefit of washing glass or autoclaving, which uses 4-150kW per week (based on 5h / week ) depending on the model and use? This must be unsustainable and is time-consuming, so why not use new plastic? Taken into account the hazard that glass brings too when broken? Personally, I think this is one of the most common reasons for using so many plastics, next to the safety reason: less washing = more time for other stuff. And you don’t have to go out and repair your measuring cups. Again: saving time.

But just as you wash your dinnerware in a full dishwasher every time (I mean, I’m not even going into the dishwasher vs handwashing discussion, who washes their lab dishes by hand?), when you don’t use half-full autoclaves and you take care of your glass well, I dare to say it becomes more sustainable. Most importantly, every single-use plastic is another one used and thrown. Plastics are known to be recyclable, but we aren’t doing it because it is too expensive (still). This means that for every new tube or dish, new materials are used and thrown away. Into the big nowhere. Whereas with glass, you buy it once and use it forever. Or at least until you break it ;) But hey, then at least it gets recycled*!
 

*Note: not all lab glass gets recycled when it is borosilicate glass.

So.. how did I switch to using more glassware during this pandemic?

In my lab (which is the big experimental internal medicine lab), the COVID-19 plastic shortage hit us too. And suddenly, we were forced to think outside the box. No more 50 ml tubes when you do ELISA, and you want to dilute your antibody in a buffer. You can just as well use a 50 ml glass cylinder and wash it after. The same holds true for flow cytometry. No more buffers in tubes. A western blot antibody step in a 50 mL tube? Use an old lid from a tip-box and put it on the rollerbank (make sure you block the sides though so it won’t fall off; full glove boxes are your go-to here). And, of course, wash the lid and reuse it after. In need of a lid on your glass cylinder? A little bit of parafilm is your best friend. Really in every experiment that doesn’t have to be sterile, (sterile) plastics can be exchanged for glass.

Some final tips to make optimal use of your glassware in the lab

1. Go out and check your protocols: where can you use replace a single-use plastic for glass? Reusable plastic is, of course, fine too, but we’re talking glass here ;)
2. Rethink your purchases: when buying dishes, reservoirs, or tubes, could you also buy something reusable? And when buying glass: is it autoclavable and recyclable?
3. Only run full dishwashers.
4. Only run full autoclaves.
5. Check your dishwasher and autoclave for their energy efficiency. And when you need to buy a new one: check how sustainable it is!
6. Take care of your glassware: repair it when possible.

The Green Lab Initiative is a new collaboration of green enthusiasts at the Radboudumc who want to encourage people to go green in the lab. With our green intentions of 2021, we will try to inspire you every month to take small steps. Find us on Twitter!

Blog by Siroon Bekkering