Starlab (UK) – TipOne® Closed-Loop Recycling Scheme

Best sustainability initiative
– the GreenLab Award

At a time when laboratories around the world are under increasing pressure to reduce plastic waste, Starlab’s TipOne® Closed-Loop Recycling Scheme stands out as a truly innovative and impactful sustainability initiative. Designed to support the scientific community in lowering its environmental footprint, this program tackles one of the lab world’s biggest challenges: single-use plastic waste.

Why this initiative deserves a Labmate Award for Excellence

The TipOne® Closed-Loop Recycling Scheme goes beyond a simple recycling program. It’s a fully integrated, user-friendly solution that helps labs take control of their plastic waste while keeping high-quality performance pipette tips at the core. It enables customers to recycle used TipOne® racks and inserts through a convenient and free-of-charge system that ensures the waste is collected, processed, and remanufactured responsibly. The key to its success lies in its simplicity, scalability, and circularity.

Truly closed-loop: The collected polypropylene is not just downcycled; it's repurposed for use in new lab products and industrial applications, keeping it out of landfill and incineration streams.

Customer-centric: It’s easy to sign up, and the scheme includes free collection and recycling, with full traceability and reporting. This helps labs meet internal sustainability targets and compliance goals.

Impact-driven: Since its launch in the UK, the scheme has helped divert over 30 tonnes of plastic from waste streams – and continues to grow.

Expansion potential: The UK success has sparked interest across other regions, with future rollouts being planned. It's a blueprint for sustainable lab practice, showing what’s possible on a global scale.

More than recycling – a mindset shift

What makes TipOne’s recycling scheme really stand out is its ability to influence behaviour. Scientists and lab managers aren’t just using a sustainable product — they’re becoming part of a sustainable process. This scheme engages users with clear environmental benefits and enables them to track their own impact. For many labs, it’s their first active step into lab sustainability.

The scheme is further supported by educational content, regular customer engagement, and marketing campaigns that show labs how easy it is to participate and make a difference. It's not just about ticking a box — it's about shifting the culture around lab waste.

Backed by a sustainable product

TipOne® tips themselves are designed for longevity and reuse with Starlab’s refill system, further reducing waste. The tips are produced in cleanrooms powered by renewable energy, using injection moulding with low waste output. The packaging is minimal and recyclable, and the entire system supports efficient stock rotation and reduced carbon impact in transport.

Innovation + impact

The TipOne® Closed-Loop Recycling Scheme blends product innovation with environmental action. It’s a rare example of a supplier taking full responsibility for their product lifecycle — and enabling customers to be part of the solution in a way that’s accessible and measurable.

Why now?

As labs face tighter funding and sustainability targets, practical solutions like this are essential. TipOne’s scheme doesn’t just promise greener labs — it delivers, with proven impact, transparent tracking, and a model that others can follow. That’s why it deserves recognition as the Best Sustainability Initiative at the Labmate Awards for Excellence 2025.