How Polycarbin Calculates Carbon Emission Impact
The scientific community is known for groundbreaking discoveries, but the field has work to do when it comes to sustainability. The biotech and pharmaceutical industries generate more than 200 million tonnes of CO₂ emissions annually, with up to 40% of those emissions stemming from the production and disposal of single-use consumables like gloves, PPE, and pipette tip boxes.
Yet most labs have no clear way to measure the carbon impact of these materials, making it difficult to take informed action. That’s why we developed a carbon emission impact calculation rooted in an ISO-compliant Life Cycle Assessment (LCAs) – made actionable through our Carbin Counter™ Dashboard. The Carbin Counter™ Dashboard provides labs with insights into their carbon emission reduction as achieved through Polycarbin’s Closed-Loop lab plastic recycling model and sustainable procurement.
The Two Components of Carbon Savings
Polycarbin calculates emissions reductions using two key factors: diversion impact and displacement impact. Both are essential to understanding the full environmental benefit of transitioning from a linear to a circular supply chain.
Diversion Impact: Avoiding Landfills and Incineration
Polycarbin’s ISO Compliant Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) employs a comprehensive dataset to quantify the environmental impact of landfilling and incineration of polyolefins such as polypropylene (PP) and polyethylene (PE). This analysis encompasses carbon emissions, freshwater utilization, acidification potential, eutrophication potential, and smog formation associated with these waste management processes.
Additionally, our LCA incorporates industry-standard data on the proportion of rigid plastic from the Life Sciences sector that is historically disposed of via landfill or incineration, providing a representative baseline of traditional waste management practices in the U.S.
By recycling rigid plastics through Polycarbin, laboratories actively divert materials from these carbon-intensive and ecologically detrimental processes into a closed-loop recycling system with significantly lower environmental impact. To quantify this difference, our LCA accounts for all transportation, energy consumption, water consumption, and fossil fuel inputs involved in Polycarbin’s recycling process and directly compares these factors to the environmental burden of landfilling or incinerating the same quantity of plastic.
The resulting differential in environmental impact represents the first component of Polycarbin’s carbon reduction calculation. While significant, this component typically accounts for a smaller share of total emissions savings.
Displacement Impact: Eliminating the Need for Virgin Plastic
A foundational principle in Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is substitution: what product is being replaced, what process is used to replace it, and is the product necessary? Virgin plastic has a high environmental impact due to energy-intensive, inefficient production. Replacing it with mechanically recycled plastic significantly reduces emissions and energy use. When recycled plastic is used to make essential healthcare and life science products, it displaces virgin material in critical applications—making its lower-impact profile even more valuable.
Polycarbin’s replacement impact analysis evaluates the fate of recycled plastic within the market, identifying the industries it serves, the necessity of its applications, and the environmental advantage of substituting Polycarbin’s closed-loop plastics for conventional virgin plastics derived from fossil fuels. This aspect of the LCA captures the full impact of displacing virgin plastic with Polycarbin’s plastic, yielding the most substantial carbon reduction benefits.
Tailored Data, Grounded in Real-World Conditions
Polycarbin’s emissions model is geographically specific to each customer. The emissions calculations in your Carbin Counter™ dashboard reflect how close your lab is to our aggregation hubs and how far those materials must travel to our manufacturing partners. This precision ensures you see the actual impact of your sustainability efforts, not just broad averages.
How the Carbin Counter™ Powers Action
Polycarbin’s LCA framework is only as impactful as it is accessible, and that’s where the Carbin Counter™ comes in. This real-time dashboard transforms the diversion data we discussed into clear, actionable insights for labs of any size. Whether managing sustainability across multiple facilities or just starting to measure your lab’s footprint, the Carbin Counter™ gives you the tools to track progress, communicate impact, and align with institutional goals.
More than a reporting tool, the Carbin Counter™ is helping teams build a culture of sustainability. Making environmental performance visible and measurable fosters internal engagement and the adoption of more ambitious goals. In short, the Carbin Counter™ connects the work labs are doing today to the impact they want to see tomorrow, bringing clarity, credibility, and momentum to the journey toward a circular future.
Closing the Loop on Lab Sustainability
Labs worldwide produce millions of tons of waste annually, much of it plastic. The climate impact of this waste is measurable, urgent, and increasingly impossible to ignore. As the life sciences industry reckons with its environmental footprint, data, transparency, and systems designed for circularity will define the path forward.
Polycarbin’s model offers a clear alternative to the status quo. Combining closed-loop recycling infrastructure with verifiable emissions tracking enables scientific institutions to move from intention to impact. We're cutting carbon emissions, replacing virgin plastic with recycled alternatives, and guiding labs to align their operations with regenerative science principles. The opportunity is here. Join us in making sustainability a core function of how science gets done.
