• Question: Do you try and use environmentally friendly tech

    Asked by Hello to Daniela ?, ☣ Danna, Jonny, Juan, Lindsay on 17 Jun 2016.
    • Photo: Jonathan Hunter

      Jonathan Hunter answered on 17 Jun 2016:

      The whole point of my PhD is to research into more environmentally friendly ways of doing chemistry. So yes I try to use the most environmentally friendly stuff available to me. However, the problem is that sometimes it’s not as good as the older less nice methods – so they are still used 🙁 . But we are working on it!

    • Photo: Daniela Lobo

      Daniela Lobo answered on 17 Jun 2016:

      Hi, Hello 🙂

      Well, I do my best. My main source of pollution is probably all the plastic things I use that go straight to the bin, like plastic pipette tips (which I can only use once because they have to be sterile/can’t be contaminated with nothing else for my experiments).
      I am always very careful about electricity and light: I never leave my instruments on if I am not gonna use them until the next day.

    • Photo: Juan Ortiz

      Juan Ortiz answered on 17 Jun 2016:

      As Daniella, I do my best, but my work involves using a lot of non-reusable plastic materials. However, I try to minimize the usage of plastic as much as I can and plan very carefully my experiments so I don’t waste any lab materials. I also try to switch off all the devices that can be switched off when I leave the lab at night and no one else is there.

    • Photo: Danna Gifford

      Danna Gifford answered on 17 Jun 2016:

      I try to recycle and reduce as much as I can, but sadly I have to use a lot of plastics in my research 🙁 I try to offset this by being environmentally-friendly at home. I don’t have a car, and I cycle nearly 100% of the places I go. I’m very happy that the University where I work spends a lot of time thinking about new ways to be more environmentally friendly.

    • Photo: Lindsay Robinson

      Lindsay Robinson answered on 18 Jun 2016:

      When we can, we use environmentally friendly techniques and chemicals in the lab. Some solvents have environmentally friendly alternatives and some don’t. It’s just a case of using alternatives when I can. Chemistry is a little different to biology in that we don’t use as many disposable plastics. Generally, things in a chemistry lab don’t need to be sterile so we can wash and reuse things.

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