Environmental impact and experimental reliability of reusing plastic consumables in wet labs

Abstract Life science research laboratories rely heavily on single-use plastic consumables (pipette tips, Petri dishes, test tubes etc). which provide sterile and reliable tools but generate substantial environmental waste. Estimates suggest that a single researcher generates between 30 kg and 1 ton of plastic waste annually, contributing to up to 5.5 million tons. Reuse through validated decontamination and cleaning processes has been proposed as a strategy to reduce this burden. In this study, we assess the environmental and experimental implications of reusing plastic consumables. A simplified life cycle analysis was performed to quantify emissions reductions, and performance testing compared reconditioned and new consumables in common laboratory applications across five reuse cycles. Plastic waste generation was additionally quantified in 30 Montreal laboratories to refine global estimates of research related waste. Reusing consumables reduced emissions by up to 4.5 tonnes of CO₂-equivalent per ton of plastic after five reconditioning cycles. No significant differences in experimental performance were observed between new and reconditioned consumables across all tested applications. Waste quantification suggests that 25,000 researchers in Montreal hospital and university research centers could generate approximately 200 tonnes of plastic annually. These findings demonstrate that reuse strategies can substantially reduce environmental impact without compromising experimental reliability.