How to Conduct a Waste Audit in the Life Sciences:
A Guide to Reducing Biohazardous Plastics and Emissions

In the life sciences sector, waste is an unavoidable by-product of daily operations. From pipette tips and petri dishes to packaging, a vast number of single-use plastics are disposed of every day. How this waste is managed has significant effects on the environment. A waste audit is a formal process that involves analysing what types of waste your facility generates, the quantities involved, and the specific sources of that waste.

The primary goal of conducting a waste audit is to create accountability for the waste generated and, in turn, find solutions that benefit the environment and support sustainable growth. By doing so, a facility can greatly reduce its volume of biohazardous waste and emissions, making huge strides towards a waste recycling strategy that encourages material recovery.

The Key Steps of a Successful Waste Audit

A comprehensive waste audit is broken down into distinct steps to ensure careful planning and preparation. Each stage provides valuable insight into your facility’s waste streams and their impact.

1. Defining the Scope and Objectives

First, you must clearly define the scope of your waste audit. This means establishing the overall objective of the audit and the specific outcomes you wish to achieve. Are you aiming to reduce costs, improve sustainability, or meet new regulatory standards? A clear scope will guide the entire process.

2. Identifying and Categorising Different Waste Streams

To conduct a proper audit, you need to consider all the different materials your facility discards. This is done by sorting materials such as PET, HDPE, PP, non-recyclable plastic, paper, metal, and organic waste.

You must also categorise the different streams, such as biomedical waste, sharps, hazardous chemical waste, non-hazardous waste, and general solid waste. This is essential because different classifications have specific handling and regulatory requirements. This is where partnering with a service that handles clinical waste collection can be vital.

3. Measuring Waste Volume, Weight, and Frequency

Measuring the volume, weight, and frequency of waste is essential to establish a baseline for performance and to track progress. These measurements paint an accurate picture of how much waste your facility generates and how it is currently managed. This data is also important for calculating disposal costs, ensuring you have ample space to store waste, and understanding your facility’s overall environmental impact. This step is crucial for developing an effective waste treatment plan.

4. Assessing Disposal Methods and Environmental Impact

Historically, managing laboratory waste has involved methods like incineration, autoclaving, and landfill. Due to the difficulty of handling this material, each of these processes poses detrimental effects on the environment and destroys the plastic, making it unrecyclable. While performing a waste audit, you must consider your current disposal methods to find solutions that align with your sustainability goals and help reduce your carbon footprint. Many biohazardous waste treatment companies are now offering more sustainable alternatives.

5. Identifying Risks and Ensuring Compliance

Understanding the regulatory requirements for each waste stream is critical. This ensures you maintain proper documentation and dispose of all materials in line with compliance measures, often with the help of specialised regulated waste treatment companies. This step helps mitigate regulatory, environmental, and operational risks.

Translating Your Audit into an Actionable Plan

Once a waste audit has been conducted, the findings can be translated into a powerful waste management strategy. The outcome highlights opportunities for change in daily operations that can help facilitate practices aligned with your sustainable goals.

When creating this plan, it’s important to research innovative technologies that support your objectives. Envetec’s GENERATIONS technology offers a revolutionary solution to the previous methods used for treating infectious materials. It enables true biohazardous waste recycling by transforming the waste into a clean, disinfected polymer flake that is suitable for reuse in manufacturing.

This process enables circularity by giving materials a second life, diverting significant volumes of waste from landfill, and reducing emissions by eliminating the need for incineration. Furthermore, the GENERATIONS connect software captures real-time data, providing accurate reports on the types, amounts, and volumes of waste being treated. By leveraging real-time data and advanced technologies, laboratories can make changes that support long-term sustainability.