Green Labs NL (https://www.greenlabs-nl.eu/) is another community of sustainable laboratories, active throughout Netherlands. A lot of information on sustainability in the lab can be found here: https://www.greenlabs-nl.eu/resources/

Waste recycling in Leiden Bio Science Park

At Leiden Bio Science Park, following waste streams (relevant to laboratories and offices) are available from various waste recycling companies:
– general waste
– medical waste
– chemical waste
– biodegradable waste
– organic waste
– paper and cardboard
– confidential paper
– paper tissues (which should not be thrown in normal paper waste)
– plastic, metal, drink packages
– glass
– EPS (expended polystyrene, piepschuim in Dutch)
– coffee waste
– coffee cups

Sustainability certificates

My Green Lab (https://mygreenlab.org/) is a global sustainability program that empowers laboratories to reduce their environmental impact through best-practice guidance, training, and certification. It helps scientists improve efficiency, lower carbon emissions, and embed sustainability into everyday research activities. Once you are enrolled in the program, there is also a lot of information available on how to be sustainable, and My Green Lab also offers specific advice for each laboratory.

The LEAF (Laboratory Efficiency Assessment Framework) (https://app.ucl.ac.uk/leaf/leaf_external) at UCL is a sustainability programme designed to improve the environmental efficiency of laboratories. It provides guidance and certification to help lab users reduce energy use, water consumption, waste, and carbon emissions while maintaining high research standards.

ISO 14001 (https://www.iso.org/standard/60857.html) is an international standard that sets out the requirements for an effective environmental management system. It helps organisations identify, manage, and continually improve their environmental performance while ensuring compliance with relevant regulations.