Extended Producer Responsibility: The Next Frontier in Sustainable Life Science

by Team Polycarbin June 26, 2025

Laboratories generate an estimated 5.5 million tons of plastic waste each year, much of it from single-use products designed with little consideration for their afterlife. This staggering volume underscores a systemic issue: the traditional, linear model of product design and disposal is no longer tenable in the life sciences.

That’s where Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) comes in.

EPR is a policy and design framework that holds manufacturers accountable for the entire lifecycle of their products, including collection, recycling, and final disposal. In life sciences, that means companies that produce pipette tips, reagent bottles, packaging, and other consumables would also help manage what happens to them after they’ve been used. This model represents a fundamental shift in how value is created, waste is managed, and sustainability is measured in the scientific supply chain.

Why EPR Matters in the Lab

For scientists and lab managers, overflowing waste bins and limited recycling options are a familiar frustration. Under an EPR model, this burden shifts upstream: manufacturers design products that are recyclable, offer take-back programs, and even reintroduce recovered materials into new products.

This reorientation of responsibility alters incentives. When producers bear the cost of managing post-consumer waste, they are naturally driven to reduce waste at the source and improve recyclability. In turn, labs benefit from products that are easier to recycle, and laboratories can reduce their environmental footprint without compromising operational efficiency.

EPR offers a practical path toward a circular economy, where waste becomes raw material for future innovation, and life science companies can lead the way.

Designing for Circularity from Day One

A product’s environmental impact is largely determined during the design phase, accounting for up to 80% of its overall impact, according to many sustainability assessments. For life science manufacturers, this means that every choice made in R&D will determine whether a product can be recycled, will be recycled, and thus how that product will impact the local and global environment.

This philosophy is known as circular design, which involves planning for a product’s end-of-life from the moment of creation. Instead of designing for disposability, companies design for recovery. For example:

Using a single recyclable polymer instead of a multi-material blend
Avoiding glues or additives that contaminate recycling streams
Engineering for easy disassembly of components
Prioritizing reusable or refillable elements where safe and feasible

Even minor design decisions, like colorants, closures, or label materials, can make the difference between a recyclable product and one destined for landfill.

Circular design also challenges manufacturers to rethink durability. Could a single-use product be safely reused? Can packaging be standardized for return and refill? These are the kinds of questions that forward-thinking life science companies are beginning to answer, knowing that smart design today leads to measurable environmental benefits tomorrow.

Cutting Scope 3 Emissions with Circular Resin Content

One of the most overlooked advantages of circular design is its impact on Scope 3 carbon emissions, the indirect emissions generated upstream and downstream in a company’s value chain.

For life science manufacturers, two of the most significant contributors to Scope 3 emissions are:

Purchased Goods and Services (the raw materials used in production)
End-of-Life Treatment of Sold Products (how the products are managed as a waste stream)

Incorporating circular, PCR content into lab consumables addresses both categories. Recycled plastics use significantly less energy and fewer raw materials than virgin petrochemicals. In fact, producing polypropylene from recycled resin can reduce embodied carbon by 65–90%, depending on the processing methods and energy sources used.

The benefits compound further in closed-loop systems, where manufacturers reclaim their own products and reincorporate them into new ones. This approach enables:

Avoided raw material extraction – Less demand for fossil fuels and petrochemicals
Lower energy inputs – Less energy required to process recycled vs. virgin plastic
Diversion from landfill and incineration – Reduced methane and CO₂ from waste sites
Extended material life – Multiple reuse cycles capture more value per kilogram of plastic.

For manufacturers aiming to meet science-based climate targets, incorporating PCR content is a high-impact, quantifiable strategy to reduce Scope 3 emissions and decarbonize the scientific supply chain.

Sustainability as a Strategic Advantage

Today, sustainability is more than an ethical imperative. It’s a strategic differentiator. In the life sciences, where competition is fierce and procurement is increasingly values-driven, brands that lead on sustainability stand out.

Scientists, institutions, and purchasing managers are demanding products that align with their environmental goals. Green labs are seeking ACT-labeled consumables. Pharma companies are measuring Scope 3 emissions in supplier scorecards. And younger researchers, especially Gen Z scientists, are selecting vendors based on climate commitments.

Companies that integrate sustainability into their product lines and messaging gain:

Customer trust and loyalty
Preferential supplier status
Opportunities for innovation and storytelling
Attraction and retention of top talent

Sustainability also enables richer brand narratives. A product made with circular resin from Closed-Loop systems carries a story of impact, circularity, and leadership that traditional features, like durability or price, simply don’t offer.

Europe’s Regulatory Momentum: Raising the Floor for Sustainability

While market demand is driving companies toward greener practices, policy is also catching up rapidly, especially in the EU.

The Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR), adopted in 2024, sets legally binding targets for the use of recycled content in plastic packaging. By 2030, all packaging sold in the EU must be recyclable, and many categories must contain at least 30% PCR content by weight. These thresholds are expected to rise even higher by 2040.

Critically, the regulation includes “contact sensitive” packaging like medical and laboratory supplies, signaling that safety concerns must now be addressed through innovation, not avoidance.

Additional provisions include:

Expanded EPR schemes – Producers are required to fund high-performance recycling systems
Deposit-return systems – Incentives to ensure recovery of materials
Design-for-reuse requirements – Particularly for electronics, medical packaging, and consumer goods

Even companies operating globally must take note. EU regulations often set the benchmark for other regions, and similar laws are now under consideration in the U.S. and Asia.

The takeaway? Circular design is no longer optional. It’s becoming the price of admission to regulated markets. Companies that get ahead of these requirements will enjoy a smoother compliance path and stronger marketing advantages.

The ACT Label: Transparency That Builds Trust

How can scientists and procurement teams verify whether a product is truly sustainable?

The My Green Lab ACT label offers a trusted, third-party benchmark. Described as the “eco-nutrition label” for lab products, ACT evaluates consumables and equipment across the full product lifecycle: energy use, water use, packaging, recyclability, end-of-life options, and more.

ACT stands for Accountability, Consistency, and Transparency, principles that resonate deeply with scientific buyers.

With more than 1,700 ACT-labeled products from 60+ manufacturers, the program is becoming the de facto standard for validating sustainability claims in the lab. For manufacturers, ACT certification signals genuine commitment and helps products stand out in competitive bids.

By including recyclability and take-back options in its scoring, the ACT label aligns directly with extended producer responsibility and circularity goals.

Powered by Polycarbin: Circularity in Action

Polycarbin’s Closed-Loop recycling platform is helping labs and manufacturers bring EPR to life. By reclaiming used lab plastics and reprocessing them into Closed-Loop ResinTM, Polycarbin enables partners to create high-purity, performance-ready lab products with verified recycled content.

Products “Powered by Polycarbin” are designed with full lifecycle accountability: from sourcing PCR lab plastics to remanufacturing to end-of-life take-back.

This model offers:

Traceable Scope 3 carbon reduction
Regulatory-ready material streams
A closed-loop solution for waste-intensive labs
Partnerships that meet sustainability targets and procurement mandates

As life science companies seek ways to decarbonize and differentiate, Polycarbin offers a powerful lever to operationalize EPR and move beyond pledges to tangible, measurable impact.

The Circular Future is Here

The convergence of EPR policy, design innovation, availability of circular resin, and third-party certification marks a turning point for life science sustainability.

Companies that embrace circularity are not only reducing emissions and waste, they’re transforming how lab products are conceived, used, and valued.

To researchers and product developers: the next generation of lab products should not only deliver scientific performance, but also reflect environmental responsibility.

To manufacturers: sustainability is no longer a side initiative. It’s core to competitiveness, compliance, and climate leadership.

The future of lab science is circular, and it may soon be quite literally Powered by Polycarbin.

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