Plastic Pipette Tips: Over 62 Million Washed and Reused - Grenova Solutions (2024)

FAQs

Plastic Pipette Tips: Over 62 Million Washed and Reused - Grenova Solutions? ›

Plastic Pipette Tips: Over 62 Million Washed and Reused

Tipnovus™ enables labs to re-use plastic pipette tips numerous times, cutting associated consumable costs by up to 96%. The unique method of wash and sanitation is safe for both the lab and the environment.

Pipette tips can be washed and reused up to 40 times.

Non-hazardous micropipette tips can be collected for recycling. Collect in a puncture-proof container. BL1 and BL2 tips must be decontaminated with bleach or alcohol before being deposited into a recycling bin.

If you have reagents that you will use some of and then put back in the freezer, reusing pipette tips is not a good idea. That is because the reagent needs to be put back into stock. Do you realise the scale of contamination that would occur if the reagent got contaminated due to the reuse of the pipette tip?

Reduce, reuse and recycle: The “three Rs” to help the planet

That massive amount plus the other things that come in plastic add up to more than 350 million tonnes a year. Reducing, reusing and recycling plastic is key in countering the devastation wreaked by climate change.

Yes. Conical tubes and even pipette tips can be washed and/or autoclaved and reused. Pipette tip boxes can be repurposed to hold other lab supplies or as containers for Western blots.

Pipette sterilization

Autoclaving is the simplest sterilization method if all pipette parts tolerate extreme heat. Pipettes should be autoclaved according to the manufacturer's instructions. To achieve sterility, a holding time of at least 20 minutes at 121°C (252°F) is required.

Outside the pipette

For aqueous solutions, rinse the contaminated parts with distilled water or 70% ethanol and air dry at 60° F.

Instead of discarding the tips after use, scientists just eject each tip back into an empty rack. The racks go into TipNovus. Depending on which system, Tipnovus can process 4 racks every 10 -12 minutes. The smaller system can process one rack every 6 minutes.

Are plastic pipette tips considered sharps? ›

According to the WCM's waste disposal procedures, a "sharp" is any glass, metal, plastic instrument or item that can cut or has the potential to cut, puncture, scratch or abrade skin, whether it is contaminated or not. Using this definition, a pipette tip is considered a sharp and must be placed in a sharps container.

Pre-wet the pipette tip

Aspirate and expel any sample liquid at least three times before aspirating a sample for delivery. Evaporation within the tip can cause significant sample loss before delivery. Pre-wetting increases humidity within the tip, thus reducing any variation in sample evaporation.

Most pipette tips and their boxes are made of either low density polyethylene (LDPE, plastic #4), or polypropylene (PP, plastic #5).

Regardless of the production capacity for these tips, manufacturers often report that they cannot keep up with the demand and that the cost of raw materials related to petroleum and associated shipping cost are extremely high on their end.

There's no singular explanation for the shortage. The sudden explosion of Covid-19 tests last year — each of which relies on pipette tips — certainly played a role. But the effects of natural disasters and other freak accidents further up the supply chain have also cascaded down to laboratory benches.

The used pipette tips can be put in cetrimide solution (10%) for 24 h (If they had been used in special cases such as bacteria). Remove the solution and transfer them to the distilled water. Remove the water after 30 min and repeat it two or three times.

It's called advanced recycling.

These technologies turn used solid plastic into its gas or liquid raw materials to be remade into brand new plastic for use in virtually any plastic product or packaging.

Nuclear science and technology can play a key role on both fronts. Irradiation can be used to treat plastic waste, extending current recycling potential and enabling a wider and higher-value reuse. Nuclear science is also used to identify, trace and monitor plastics in the ocean, particularly microplastics.

According to the 5 R's, four actions should be taken, if possible, prior to 'recycling': refuse, reduce, reuse, repurpose, and then recycle. Incorporating this methodology into your business' waste reduction and recycling efforts will minimize landfill waste and help take your recycling program to the next level.

3D printing is being used to recycle plastic waste into new products. This technology allows for the creation of new products using recycled plastic, reducing the need for virgin materials and waste. Pyrolysis is a process that converts plastic waste into fuel.