What is Polycarbin?

Polycarbin is a company that offers "closed-loop" lab plastics recycling. The lab plastics they collect get melted down and repurposed into tips, tubes, and other consumables that Polycarbin offers through their webstore. This ensures "closed-loop recycling", where used lab plastics can be used to create new, fully-recycled, lab plastics.

Cal Zero Waste is partnering with Polycarbin to deploy bins in labs throughout the UC Berkeley campus, including Bakar Labs, to help reach campus sustainability goals.

Questions about Polycarbin and Cal Zero Waste? Contact Chris Dunfield at Polycarbin (cdunfield@polycarbin.com) or Lin Tien King at Cal Zero Waste (ltking@berkeley.edu).

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Expectations of the Bakar Labs Community

Researchers should familiarize themselves with the acceptable and incompatible items for each bin, and mind the signage posted. Understanding whether or not your plastics are compatible with the bin is essential to minimize waste and increase the effectiveness of the recycling. Too many incompatible items in a bin will result in the entire container being sent to landfill, rather than to Polycarbin's recycling process.

Review the attachments at the bottom of this article for thorough examples, including common approved solvents & reagents.

Broadly, Polycarbin does NOT accept the following:

• Infectious or Hazardous Plastics: These are lab plastics that have been used in BSL-2 work, or had contact with hazardous chemicals.

  • For plastics that have come in contact with non-infections yeast or E. coli, please spray the plastics with 70% ethanol or 1% bleach.

  • For plastics with buffer residues, rinse with water.

• Excess Liquid Residue: Be sure to thoroughly empty containers before disposing them in the bin. Small amounts of liquid residue can add up quickly in the bins.

• Soft Packaging: No shrink wrap, packaging films, or multi-layered films (e.g. serological pipette wrappers with combined paper/plastic wrappers).

• Municipal Plastics: No food packaging or non-laboratory plastics.

• #1 or #7 Plastics: #1 PET (Polyethylene terephthalate) & #7 [ABS (Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene) or HIPS (high-impact polystyrene)].

  • Common examples: Media bottles, cell scrapers, weigh boats.

• Fibrous Waste: No cardboard, Kimwipes, or Paper Waste.

• Rubber/Latex/Nitrile/Silicone: No gloves!

• Tubing: Nylon or Rubber Tubing.

• Metal: Metal will destroy the sorters at Polycarbin's recycling facility.

Bins in the Lab

1. Clear Rigid Plastics - Natural Colored (clear or clear-opaque) Plastic with a #5 or #6

   1. Clear Examples: Pipette Tips, Serological Pipettes, Cell Culture Plates, Petri Dishes, Clear Pipette Tip Boxes, Filter Units, Needleless syringes (rubber stopper included), Clear Parts of Pipette Tip Boxes, 15 and 50mL Conical Tubes, Clear well Plates (plastic only), 384-well PCR Plates, PCR Strips, Microcentrifuge Tubes.

   2. INCOMPATIBLE ITEMS: Film Plastics , #1 or #7 Plastics, Metal, Paper, Rubber (incl. gloves), Silicone,Glass, Hazardous & Infectious Material, Multi-gallon containers.

2. Color Rigid Plastics - Dye Colored Plastic with a #2 or #5

   1. Color Examples: Opaque Parts of Pipette Tip Boxes, Caps, White and Brown Dry Chemical Bottles, Large Ethanol and Buffer Bottles, Opaque well Plates (plastic only).

   2. INCOMPATIBLE ITEMS: Film Plastics , #7 Plastics, Metal, Paper, Rubber (incl. gloves), Silicone,Glass, Hazardous & Infectious Material, Multi-gallon containers.

Bin Signage

Please refer to the signs posted on the bins to help in sorting. For reference, they are reproduced here:

Clear Rigid Plastics - Natural Clear or Opaque Plastic with a #5 or #6:

Color Rigid Plastics - Dye-Colored Plastic with a #2 or #5: