SUBJECT: Can disposable labware be recycled?
DATE: 3/96

In the biology courses at my college, large numbers of disposable
test tubes and culture tubes are used and then discarded. There are
several important reasons for our use of disposables, but students
often raise the question of why we don't reuse our glassware.

Has anyone located a facility that would recycle glassware that had
been used for Benedict's, biuret, and starch tests of foods in
general biology or had been autoclaved after growing bacteria for a
general microbiology course? They would be emptied but not washed.
Would there be a company that would take them if they were rinsed?

Hildy Sanders
f-sander@wpmsgsvr.vjc.edu


Have you considered checking with the local high schools to see if they
are interested in using some of your cast-offs?

**********************************************
Cathy Smith
College of the Sequoias (209) 730-3811
915 South Mooney
Visalia CA 93277
cathys@giant.sequoias.cc.ca.us


We have work-study students wash glassware, including
"disposable" test-tubes but not, I think, Pasteur pipets. I
don't think this activity would be commercially feasible at
minimum wage rates, considering the investment in machinery -
autoclaves etc. - that we don't factor into the accounting.

But if you have a group of students on campus who are interested in
saving the evironment, you might be able to negotiate a deal by
which they do the work, sell the cleaned materials back at a
discount, and put the proceeds to work for their organization.
Methinks somebody will come back with a question about
institutional liability in this scheme, that might make it a
non-starter. Just a thought.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Walter Ogston ogston@hobbes.kzoo.edu
Department of Biology Phone: (616)337-7010
Kalamazoo College Fax: (616)337-7251
Kalamazoo, MI 49006-3295


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