Introducing the Beta Carbin – The Recycling Solution for Your Rigid Lab Plastics

by Thomas O'Brien June 8, 2022

More than 12 billion pounds of scientific plastic waste is generated globally each year. Engineering waste out of the scientific supply chain, from point of production to point of disposal, is critical to scaling a circular economy within the life sciences. That’s why we’re excited to share the latest milestone in this pursuit with the launch of the Beta Carbin. With this expanded mailback service offering, rigid lab plastics that meet the acceptability criteria (e.g. non-hazardous) can be sent to Polycarbin for processing and remanufactured into new lab plastics, reducing the carbon footprint innovation.

Spend more time making breakthroughs and less time on recycling solutions

While not a new concern, nothing has highlighted the need for increased effort in reducing plastic waste more than COVID-19. Since the pandemic’s start, an estimated 8 million metric tons of pandemic-related plastic waste has been generated. With the proliferation of single-use plastics and no shortage of lab recycling programs, it begs the question: Where does one start?

As it turns out, it’s not always straightforward to recycle lab plastics. There are various recycling programs that accept a subset of plastics, but implementing a lab- or organization-wide recycling program can take significant time and effort to capture most of the plastics being used in the lab. However, with Polycarbin’s Beta Carbin, you can send your rigid lab plastics through a simple mailback service that not only reduces the effort of the recycling, but also remanufactures those plastics into new lab products.

The Beta Carbin Service for Rigid Lab Plastics combines tip, tube, and municipal recycling. All of your lab plastics can be remanufactured back into scientific consumables.

Polycarbin’s mailback recycling solution simplifies the time and effort required to recycle rigid lab plastics.

Tackle sustainability more efficiently by reducing downcycling

Another key component in the effort to reduce the carbon footprint associated with single-use lab plastics is increasing the utility of recycled materials. You can think of this as the circular economy of lab plastics, which means that instead of having a straight line from virgin materials through produced plastic products to downcycled plastic lumber, you instead have a circle from plastic products to remanufactured lab plastics.

When you use Polycarbin’s mailback solutions or purchase a product from our Closed-Loop Collection, you are effectively replacing a high carbon footprint product with a low carbon footprint alternative.

Avoid downcycling by having your plastics be a part of the next generation of lab products.

The closed-loop recycling process from Polycarbin reduces the carbon footprint of lab plastics more than the standard recycling process.

Set a standard for your organization’s impact on sustainability goals

Last, but certainly not least, is the ability to track the progress you are making with your sustainability efforts. After finding the right recycling program and making sure that program is maximizing the utility of the recycled plastics, how do you measure the impact you are making? By taking advantage of the Carbin Counter.

The Carbin Counter is a shareable, interactive tracker to keep you updated on the impact of your sustainability progress in an easy and understandable way. Track the emissions reductions of your recycling efforts and share them with your organization using key metrics that resonate with everyday life.

Utilize the transparency of the Carbin Counter to see your plastic's continuous life cycle.

The Carbin Counter provides an actionable way to track progress toward your lab’s carbon-neutrality goals.

Polycarbin has created a more sustainable and efficient life-science supply chain to meet the needs of sustainability-conscious scientists and the low-carbon economy of the future.

Ready to reduce the carbon footprint of innovation? Learn more here.