Much of the discussion around sustainable laboratories rightly focuses on infrastructure, procurement and institutional policy. But one of the most important places to embed sustainable practice is much closer to the bench: in the teaching laboratory, where students first learn what “professional” practical scientific work looks like.
If students encounter sustainability only as an abstract principle, it is unlikely to shape their day-to-day behaviour. If, however, they are taught from the beginning that reducing waste is part of good laboratory practice, they are more likely to carry those habits into later study, research and industry. In our experience, this works best when sustainability is taught at several levels: through routine habits, targeted interventions and advanced decision- making in research-style laboratory work.
The following are methods we have adopted to educate our undergraduate students on waste reduction.
Build low-waste habits into ordinary lab practice
Some of the most effective ways to reduce laboratory waste are also the simplest. One example is how we teach students to clean their glassware. In synthetic chemistry labs, students can quickly develop the impression that washing acetone is the default solution for cleaning. Yet, many residues can be removed perfectly well with soap and water.
To challenge this assumption, we give students clear guidance on why soap and water should be their starting point. This involves explaining both the waste implications of unnecessary organic solvent use and the practical limitations of acetone itself. This message is then reinforced in day-to-day lab interactions: when students ask for acetone, staff discuss what they are trying to remove, why they think acetone is needed and what other compatible cleaning options might be available. Encouraging students to consider such questions before reaching for acetone helps challenge a wasteful assumption at an early stage and reinforces the idea that organic solvents should be used deliberately.
Students also learn from the laboratory environment itself. Signage at waste stations and fume cupboards can reinforce key messages at the point of action: use solvents only when necessary, segregate waste correctly and keep fume cupboard sashes lowered.
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That final instruction is important not only for safety but for sustainability, because the term “waste” can encompass avoidable energy use as well as chemical disposal. Fume cupboards are highly energy-intensive, and a single unit can use about the same amount of energy in a year as three average households. Putting this into everyday terms helps students grasp the significance of what might otherwise seem like a small action. It is important to reiterate that lowering the sash whenever possible is one of the simplest ways to reduce energy use, and, if done consistently, can save about £1,000 per fume cupboard each year.
Recycling provision can also play a simple but important role. Labels on bins for cardboard, paper and clean glass encourage students to think about waste as something to manage responsibly, rather than simply discard. Taken together, these measures help establish a laboratory culture that sees sustainability not as an optional extra but part of competent professional practice.
Use practical constraints to encourage better solvent use
Alongside these baseline habits, targeted interventions can help students think more carefully about their consumption of laboratory resources. Returning to the washing acetone example, in many teaching labs unrestricted access can lead students to use it freely for routine cleaning, generating large volumes of hydrocarbon waste and adding to both purchasing and disposal costs.
One way to change this behaviour is not simply to tell students to use less but to create a system that encourages more thoughtful use. Previously, a class of 42 students in one of our third-year undergraduate teaching laboratory sessions would use about 10 to 15 litres of acetone each day for washing and cleaning glassware. This prompted the introduction of a new system which allowed classes a maximum of eight 400 millilitre bottles of washing acetone per day. The bottles were numbered so that students could see how quickly the supply was being used, and notices displayed near the waste station fume cupboard explained the purpose of the system and reminded students to reserve acetone for cases that required something stronger than soap and water.
The effect was significant: acetone use fell to 3.2 litres per day. This kind of intervention doesn’t just reduce waste; it teaches students that resources are not infinite, and sustainable decision-making makes a huge difference.
Part two in this series will explore how to move beyond basic waste reduction to teach students how to make responsible choices in experimental work.
Rebecca L. Jones is teaching fellow and theme lead: sustainability; Sara Thayammal and Fatema Khatun are senior teaching technicians; Roberta Stinga is a teaching technician. All work in the department of chemistry, Imperial College London.
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