Zero Waste Labs

What is Zero Waste Labs?

The Zero Waste Labs Program focuses on reducing, reusing, composting, and recycling in order to reach our zero waste goals in a laboratory setting. Our two-fold approach focuses on waste bin standardization in laboratories and implementing a circular economy model for lab plastics. 

Standardizing laboratory bins across campus involves centralizing and locating collection bins, communicating with custodial services, and relabelling bins to increase clarity. By working with custodial teams, our program improves workload efficiency by having clearer service bins.

As of Spring 2026, this program has transitioned from a pilot to the standardized protocol. We will be rolling out the program to labs across campus in phases, so look out for emails regarding the timeline of your building.

Three Zero Waste Labs signage posters for Landfill (black), Compost (green), and Mixed Paper (blue), showing photos of allowed items and a red warning banner on each reading "No sharps, hazardous waste, or contaminated materials."
Side view of our waste bins. From left to right we have our grey landfill bin, green compost bin, blue mixed paper recycling bin, and two blue polycarbonate recycling bins (one for colored plastic and one for clear plastic).
Our program’s process is divided into two phases. The first involves collecting data and replacing the bins in labs.

Our program’s process is divided into two phases. The first involves collecting data and replacing the bins in labs. Then, we schedule walkthroughs to get a sense of each individual lab setting and go over the logistics for the implementation of new bins. Following the walkthrough, we mark off designated areas for the placement of the new bins and get them delivered to your site. Phase two, involves assessing the program’s efficiency and and getting feedback on how to improve the system. 

Polycarbin Recycling

The second focal point of the Zero Waste Labs Program is implementing a circular economy for lab plastics, using the help of Polycarbin. Our team has placed specially labelled Polycarbin bins in over 30 labs across campus to collect and recycle non-hazardous lab plastic waste. Using the circular economy model, we strive to repurchase recycled lab plastics generated from our lab materials for reuse. Our program also works with labs to identify more sustainable and recyclable alternatives for commonly purchased lab products.

Why Polycarbin and Circular Economy?

Research labs produce high amounts of waste due to the repeated use of plastic products like pipette tips, conical tubes, etc. Many of these plastics—specifically plastic types 2 (High Density Polyethylene), 5 (Polypropylene) and 6 (Polystyrene)—can be remade into new products. Polycarbin has partnered with UC Berkeley to help labs on campus successfully reduce their landfill impact by recycling non-hazardous plastic products into the next generation of lab consumables, effectively creating a circular economy.

Common items that go into Polycarbin bins:

  • Pipette tip boxes (colored/clear)
  • Chemical/solvent bottles (colored)
  • Conical tubes (clear) and caps (colored)
  • Microcentrifuge tubes (colored/clear)
  • Serological pipettes (clear)
  • Petri dishes (clear)
  • Filter units (clear)
  • Needleless syringes (clear)
  • PCR plates (colored/clear)
A table showing pounds recycled by quarter from late 2024 through 2025, starting at 190 lbs in 2024-Q4 and steadily increasing to 3,069 lbs in 2025-Q4.

Want to Join the Program?

The Zero Waste Lab program is at no cost to UC Berkeley labs. However, it is worth noting that landfill, recycling, and compost bin systems will be streamlined as a part of the program. This may involve removing old, non-standardized bins. Additionally, custodial pickup will be increased to twice per week after getting started with Polycarbin.

How to get started?

Please submit a service request through Facilities Services: FS - Submit Service Request

Environmentally Preferable Products List

Signage for "Polycarbin Colored Lab Plastics" accepting dye color plastic with a #2 or #5 resin code, featuring illustrations of colored lab items including reagent bottles, caps, and pipette tip boxes, with a warning reading "No sharps, hazardous waste, or contaminated materials."
Signage for "Polycarbin Clear Lab Plastics" accepting colorless plastic with a #5 or #6 resin code, featuring illustrations of clear labware like media bottles, conical tubes, pipette tips, multiwell plates, and serological pipettes, with a warning reading "No sharps, hazardous waste, or contaminated materials."
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What can go in the Polycarbin bins?

Recycling Protocol Decision Tree – Polycarbin 

*Anything being put into Polycarbin should still abide by EH&S guidelines first and foremost 

Permitted in Bins: 

Plastic type 1 (PETE) 

Items with stickers/labels still attached 

BSL1 (only recombinant DNA, and must be autoclaved or treated with liquid bleach before recycling.... 

Read more

Why do we not recycle gloves?

The materials used to make gloves are often not recyclable in a meaningful way, and so the process is considered downcycling. This means the product is recycled into another lower quality product that may not be recyclable (eg. recycling nitrile gloves into plastic pellets to make tires). This does not align with the circular economy framework used by Cal Zero Waste. There are many other companies that do gloves recycling, but labs should set that up independently.

Why does our Polycarbin program not take plastics 3, 4 & 7?

Plastic type 3 is PVC (Polyvinyl Chloride) and is not recyclable due to the toxic chemicals that are released during its breakdown process. 

Plastic type 4 is LDPE (low density polyethylene) and is often a softer plastic type, which our program is not set to recycle. 

Plastic type 7 consists of all Polycarbonates and “other” plastic types, meaning there is no set standard for how they should be recycled.

Need more bins?

Submit a service request through Facilities Services: FS - Submit Service Request