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Labs should cut plastic waste too

Nature volume 528, page 479 (2015)Cite this article

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Many governments now impose charges for single-use plastic bags and bottles. As responsible researchers, we should cut back on disposable plastics (see also G. Bistulfi Nature 502, 170; 2013).

We estimate that the 280 bench scientists in our bioscience department generated roughly 267 tonnes of plastic in 2014 (data from University of Exeter Sustainability and Waste and Resource Management offices). That is equivalent to about 5.7 million empty 2-litre plastic bottles. Some 20,500 institutions worldwide are involved in biological, medical or agricultural research (where plastic disposal is likely to be heaviest), so that could equate to around 5.5 million tonnes of lab plastic waste in 2014 — roughly the combined tonnage of 67 cruise liners, and equal to 83% of the plastic recycled worldwide in 2012.

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  1. University of Exeter, UK

    Mauricio A. Urbina

  2. University of Concepción, Chile

    Mauricio A. Urbina

  3. University of Exeter, UK

    Andrew J. R. Watts & Erin E. Reardon

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  1. Mauricio A. Urbina
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  3. Erin E. Reardon
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Correspondence to Mauricio A. Urbina.

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Urbina, M., Watts, A. & Reardon, E. Labs should cut plastic waste too. Nature 528, 479 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/528479c

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