The good news is that ongoing concern for the environment is prompting an increasing number of labs to focus on becoming more eco-friendly. What’s more, many are discovering ways to save “green” (what Americans refer to as money) and protect lab personnel while they’re taking steps to heal the planet.
Here is a compilation of several practical strategies that can help your lab make some forward progress with its eco-friendly efforts.
Strategy #1: Make a Serious Commitment to Going Green
The first step to going green is simply to decide that you’re going to do it. Get buy-in from your executive leaders, create a plan and perhaps even get a signed statement from your team. While it does take some work to do things differently, the payoff can be big.
“Believe it or not, laboratories can do a lot to improve the environment and help our planet,” says Jack Zakowski, Ph.D., Director of Scientific Affairs and Professional Relations at Beckman Coulter. “It starts with environmental awareness—especially in terms of waste-reduction efforts—and can very quickly lead to monetary savings as well.”
For example, improved waste-segregation efforts can increase regulatory compliance and reduce costs, which will not only benefit your lab but will play a part in the larger picture too—you’ll be helping conserve energy and the oil necessary to transport and dispose of the waste. Plus, transitioning to less toxic chemicals can improve safety and air quality.
Strategy #2: Arm Yourself With Information and Tools
When striving for greener lab practices, targeted information and guidance is key—yet not always easy to find. Partner with the appropriate internal and external experts to make sure your hazardous waste regulations, waste handling and waste treatment processes are carefully reviewed—and in compliance with all local, state and federal laws. You may also consider the following resources to help guide your journey:
- Hospitals for a Healthy Environment Website (www.h2e-online.org)
This organization, which recently became Practice Greenhealth, is a not-for-profit, membership-based organization that offers a wealth of webinars, tools, resources and practical strategies for achieving environmental excellence in health care.
- The Green Guide for Health Care (www.gghc.org)
This quantifiable, sustainable design toolkit is specifically designed for health care facilities and can be downloaded free. It provides voluntary, self-certifying metrics and best practices that can guide and evaluate your progress toward high-performance, environmentally sustainable efforts.
Strategy #3: Focus on Cutting Hazardous Waste and Regulated Medical Waste (RMW)
Many hospitals routinely throw 50 to 75 percent of their waste into the biohazardous waste stream, even though a large portion of their waste is similar to standard office trash—mostly paper, cardboard and food. Worse yet, they often pay up to 10 times more to dispose of infectious versus solid waste.
This doesn’t have to be the case. Industry reports have shown that with comprehensive education, hospitals can realistically aim to decrease red-bag waste to a mere 6 to 10 percent of their waste stream. And many are currently saving hundreds of thousands of dollars by improving their waste segregation and implementing RMW reduction programs.
If you’re ready to cut back your waste costs, consider the following tips:
- Work with your purchasing group to identify and purchase less toxic products from the start. It not only reduces your hazardous waste, it also increases worker safety.
- Identify all sources of hazardous waste in the laboratory.
- Consider solvent recycling efforts, including onsite distillers for Formalin, Alcohol and Xylene. These distillers recapture between 80 to 90 percent of used chemicals, providing fresh product in return, therefore reducing the cost of hazardous waste disposal and reducing the need (and cost) of ordering new chemicals.
- Look into reusable sharps containers to further minimize waste.
- Process biohazardous waste with a steam sterilizer and grinder—resulting in waste that’s no longer infectious.
- Insist on annual hazardous waste training for every laboratory employee. Define hazardous waste in the lab, how to handle it, how to label containers, how to respond to hazardous spills and how to reduce hazardous waste through best practices.
- Redesign your stain racks and sinks in an effort to collect stain waste, minimize water use and aid in the collection of hazardous reagents.
“Because hazardous waste is the most expensive waste per unit, anything labs can do to prevent hazardous waste—detox it, reuse it or distill it—is going to reduce costs significantly,” says Zakowski.
If you are interested in reading more about reducing RMW, check out the following resources provided by Hospitals for a Healthy Environment:
Strategy #4: Reduce, Reuse and Recycle
Recycling doesn’t end with aluminum cans and plastic bottles. Good laboratory practices can also include:
- Using reusable office and lab furniture (e.g., standard lab benches and shelving), office furniture made from recycled materials and/or renewed/reused carpet in offices. Consider LEED-certified furniture that doesn’t have excessively high levels of formaldehyde.
- Actively educating employees through posters that show “what goes where”—specifically identifying which disposables (e.g., pipettes, used reagent cartridges, packaging material) go in which locations (e.g., autoclave bags, red bags, sharps containers, bulk blood containers, recycling bins, waste containers).
- Promoting environmental efforts through newsletter articles (e.g., the difference between items with “significant contamination” or those just “tainted with blood”).
Strategy #5: Prevent Pollution Every Step of the Way
Labs can also delve into a campaign to reduce pollution by following a step-by-step hierarchy of waste and disposal choices.
- First, try to reduce the volume or toxicity of your waste through purchasing and prevention. Work with your purchasing group to evaluate everything you purchase for your laboratory—and make changes at the source whenever feasible. (See next strategy.)
- Non-hazardous waste that cannot be prevented should always be remanufactured or recycled, if possible.
- Waste that cannot be prevented, reused or recycled should be treated in an environmentally sound manner.
- Waste disposal via the sanitary sewer or landfill should be employed only as a last resort, and such activity should be conducted in the most environmentally-safe and compliant manner possible.
Strategy #6: Continue Eliminating Mercury From Your Facility
By now, U.S. laboratories are well-versed in the 1998 memorandum from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and American Hospital Association (AHA) which called on hospitals to voluntarily identify and eliminate mercury from their facilities. This recommendation continues to have strong implications for labs—where mercury can be prevalent and often difficult to find.
For example, mercury can be a common contaminant in many chemicals and reagents; is often used in many preservatives; and can even be present in older laboratory equipment and plumbing.
Not sure where to begin? If you’re serious about removing mercury from your lab, check out the following resources:
Putting It All Together
It’s true, going green can impact your laboratory in many positive ways—both environmentally and financially. And fortunately, there are plenty of practical ways your lab can cut pollution and costs. Remember, every bit helps. So, whether your lab makes just one change or a multitude of changes, you can be sure that any “green” effort you undertake will make a difference in the health of our environment.
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