When asked to share your preferences for this newsletter, one thing stood out – how often we still feel like we are fighting alone.
I do write this weekly newsletter as a reminder that you are not alone.
If you haven't yet, let me know what you think. Otherwise, let me share some interesting opportunities and a fascinating study.
Today's Lesson: Make Change Happen Together
Sharing opportunities and data to support each other
Number of the Day
While sustainability is not always considered a top priority by our colleagues and supervisors, it is a topic that receives ever more support in science. My second- latest LinkedIn posts alone reached >115 000 people, garnering several hundred likes. In other words, people do care. Even though they don't always know what to do to drive change. I would also argue that some companies do too. For instance, here is a piece I collaborated on with Sartorius to highlight that change is happening.
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Sharing our Passion, Events & Data
Sustainability can feel lonely at times, but it doesn't have to. There are many others who share your passion.
For example, my long-term supporter, My Green Lab, is once again hosting its virtual annual summit, which you can join for free.
As expectations and pressures from consumers, scientists, investors, and funders rise, the event will address how sustainability is shifting from a voluntary commitment to a market anticipation.
That means you can link up there with sustainability leaders, scientists, green lab professionals, and industry changemakers.
Moreover, we will host our summit on October 28th and 29th sharing concrete tactics on how you can make your lab greener!
We Are Many
Whether at online events or in this series, we are here for you.
However, it is still discouraging to suggest change and have the answer come back as nothing but "we can't risk doing that".
Remember, each case study and each paper that you see represents another group of people with the same passion as you. And it is one more group that made change happen despite the doubts they may have faced.
Luckily, though, you are not the only person who has ever asked that question.
Let me share a truly interesting study that you can use either to convince a colleague or to evaluate for yourself if change is feasible.
Will You Contaminate Your Samples?
We discussed a study that showed that reusing lab items can be safe for biological assays. But what about more in-depth analyses?
Vaughan and colleagues investigated whether reusing pipette tips is possible in trace chemical analysis.
Their lab monitors contaminants of emerging concern in water. Thus, they go through roughly 20 000 tips a year, per instrument.
So they used LC-MS/MS, gravimetry and SEM to investigate whether reuse would influence the data and the tips themselves.
What they actually did:
They tested eleven wash solvents chosen from the CHEM21 guide, then narrowed them down to acetonitrile, ethanol:water (50:50), 1% nitric acid and acetone
They checked 133 target compounds (from cocaine to …) at five concentrations between 500 and 15 000 ng/L, in ultrapure water and then again in real pooled wastewater.
They tested four tip types. Below I focus on the two ordinary air-displacement ones, blue (100–1000 µL) and yellow (10–200 µL), both polypropylene, because those are the tips most labs actually use.
They tested 1–4 washes and also up to 40 reuse cycles, with four washes per cycle, so 160 washes on a single tip.
What They Found
A single wash already removed around 98% of the overall signal, but a number of compounds were still detectable afterwards.
The “number of compounds detected per wash (W1–W4) and chemical solvent (n = 6) investigated across the five concentrations investigated.” The authors also state that the average peak reduction per wash was 99.6 ± 0.11% across all solvents. Only one exception was observed, where a higher number of compounds detected was obtained in a higher wash.
Four washes are needed to consistently achieve a reduction above 98% and to bring most compounds below detection.
Of all the solvents tested, simple ethanol:water 50:50 came out as the best overall choice.
While acetonitrile cleaned best and 1% nitric acid was the "greenest" solvent, EtOH:H2O balanced both best.
Applying the Knowledge
Even if your friends or your lab do not support sustainability, you are not alone.
In this series, and at our summit on October 28th and 29th, I will bring you the newest studies and opportunities.
And now you have data showing that typical tips survive up to 40 reuse cycles (equal to 160 washes) in MeCN and EtOH.
However, there are some important nuances - as always, you can (or should) read the paper here yourself.
These are "scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images of the pistons of the positive displacement pipette tips CP1000 before (i.e., blanks) and after (i.e., used tips) reusing the tip for a total of 40 times using a wastewater sample spiked at 500 ng L−1 and MeCN as the chemical solvent for the washing regime (n = 4 washes after every sample aspiration). Magnification ranges from 20 to 200 mm."
While some analytes couldn't be removed (due to adhesion to the plastic?), not all solvents actually reduce the overall footprint.
But for such nuanced questions, people like me are here to support you. Also, you probably don't have to optimize for >133 compounds.
Also, their LCA had some significant shortcomings and probably underestimates the CO2e savings, as they did not consider the full plastic footprint.
In the end, swapping 20 000 new tips for 500 reused ones, with a three-wash ethanol regime, saves at least 5 kgCO₂e.
And that is per instrument, every single year!
How We Feel Today
References
Vaughan, A. et al., 2025. Reuse of consumable pipette tips for large-scale trace analysis of contaminants of emerging concern in wastewater. RSC Sustainability, 3(12), 5470–5485. doi:10.1039/d5su00644a.
If you have a wish or a question, feel free to reply to this Email. Otherwise, wish you a beautiful week! See you again on the 24th : )
Edited by Patrick Penndorf Connection@ReAdvance.com Lutherstraße 159, 07743, Jena, Thuringia, Germany Data Protection & Impressum If you think we do a bad job: Unsubscribe
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