How important is cross-contamination control?

How important is sterility?

How expense are the plastic items vs. the cleaning agents?

What's the environment impact of the alconox and ethanol vs. disposing of (most likely unrecyclable) plastics?

What's your institute's policy?

Dear Derek Versteeg,

Recycling and using plastic several times is an inevitable commitment to humanity. They are a product of our development in technology. They have replaced a large part of the main raw materials for the manufacture of household goods and the food industry. Depending on the type of plastic, whether it will be used for food or household purposes, it must be recycled and reused. Of course, food plastics are most often disposable. Reusing them requires resources by increasing their cost. Therefore, disposable plastics are often recycled and used to make household appliances or other non-food items. According to world trends, one day it will be profitable to recycle disposable plastic products and reuse them or reuse them several times. It is a matter of time and technology in the near future.

Dear all, plastics recycling is a solution to their accumulation in the environnement, something that threats the bio-equilibrium system. However, it is obvious that these recycled plastics will be no more food-grade. The most attracting uses are : additives, energy generation, conversion to waxes and oils, and so on. My Regards

You can also consider the sensitivity of whatever you are using in the plasticwares. For routine prep of non-sensitive solutions, you could have dedicated (labeled) weigh boats that are washed between uses and kept with the container. That would avoid any residual carryover.

After all, many of us have plastic mixing containers for solutions that we wash then re-use.