reusable cell culture flasks, pipettes etc. - (Sep/12/2007 )

For a school project I want to figure out if the non-reusable materials in cell culture can be replaced by reusable materials. Does someone know any reusable materials in cell culture.
Thanks in advance.

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In the 1970's through the 1980's ALL cell culture flasks and pipettes were reusable. All were glass and were used, then washed and replugged and autoclaved. This for a lab of 50-100 scientist would require a team of glass washers and autoclave staff.
Then plastic non reusable items came along. However you can reuse TC flasks over and over if you want to save money....but it increase the chances of contamination.

Hope this is what you wanted to know

Rhombus

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Some poor labs, old fashion or thrifty researchers reuse flasks and more commonly pipettes. They have to be washed many times and autoclaved. A pipette washer can be buyed to make it easier. But it need many time anyway and many liters of water too.

Here is an example:

Nalgene® Pipette Washers/Rinser
Leakproof 1-piece washer/rinsers are constructed of high-density polyethylene and offer a wide range of cycling speeds. Operate from 1.5 to 12 lpm water supplies without siphon stall; contaminated water cannot be back-siphoned into feed line. Supplied with inlet/outlet tubing.

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hey nirak

whats the aim of your school project? are you trying to find ways to run a cellculture lab with less waste? or are you searching for a way to save money? reusing materials depends on which of these two things you want to achieve.

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My aim is to figure out if the waste in the schools cellculture lab can be reduced. It is for a project about the environment.
I think that based on above reactions my conclusion will be that it can be done but brings a lot of extra costs and the spill of water. So that it might not even be better for the environment. But I have to do some research and cost calculations.

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I think the best way to reduce the lab's footprint would be to try to recycle the plastic for some other purpose (assuming the plastic itself can be readily recycled). Then all you have to worry about is making sure the plastic doesn't have any biological contaminants remaining. I'm thinking bleach, bleach and more bleach to kill any cells. Then copious rinsing (which introduces its own problems, unless you use stored rainwater for that part).

Basically, I think you'd be hard-pressed to find a method that didn't pollute as much as your current protocols.

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Ok well then try this:

How old is your autoclave? if they are old they probably eat a lot of energy. you could easiliy reduce the footprint of your lab by buying a new one. And depending on the size of your lab you might want to choose a bigger than usual autoclave. Two small ones eat much more energy than a big one. But regardless of the size of your lab you should have at least two of them: one for waste and one for agars and such.

You could also reduce waste a lot if you could find working steps that need NOT to be sterile. Seriously if often seen people pipetting with disposable pipettes under the lami and than put what they jut mixed in the autoclave. Why avoiding contamination if you autoclace it anyway? thats both a waste of energy and disposable equipment. (ok depending on what you do it could make sense. Working with toxines that survive autoclavation for example). State explicitly which steps dont have to be sterile in your SOPs.

dont inactivate your sera. waste of energy and time.

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Thanks for thinking with me and helping me. Maybe it is important to know about the schools lab:
We borrow the autoclaves from an other school. I think they received them from laboratoria companies, so yes they are very old but I think buying new ones is not an option for the school.
The schools cell culture lab is very small and is not used daily. I think that about 15 plastic disposable volume pipettes are used every week and about 4 disposable culture flasks. Sometimes more during cellculture projects, sometimes less.
We do already use reusable needles (to carry out PBS and trypsinasation steps) on the cell culture lab. I believed after use they are being autoclaved, washed and than heat dried. I think this same procedure can be done with glass volume pipettes?

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Rhombus is right; I think the main reason why disposables has mainly substituted glass ware are the cost of man power to wash and sterilize the glass ware: buying plastic ware is cheaper

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to go back to use glass ware routinely instead of disposable plastic ware may be lead by terms of ecological correctness; I do not know the correct ecological balance between glass and plastic ware as the matter is complex:

on the one hand, re-usage of glass needs water, chemicals and power for washing and sterilization which may be higher than for the production of plastic ware;

on the other hand, plastic has to be recycled or burnt if it should not polute the environment (oceans are already polluted by very small plastic particles which is an ecological bomb to force the destroying of marine life)


so, ecologically correct handling is not always obvious but must be balanced! I would figure out this very important aspect in your school project

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