The Veterinary Diagnostic Lab (VDL) at the College of Veterinary Medicine (CVM) functions similar to a human medical institution, in that it generates waste that is not recyclable due to biosafety considerations. This is an unfortunate waste. This team would like to sp"BARK" a change in the waste stream by recycling some of the plastics. This team's goal is to capture the waste from this team's work that involves single use sterile pipette rip boxes, which are safe to be recycled. This unit typically disposes of 12lbs a week of clean plastics in the form of pipette rip boxes; they operate 52 weeks a year, generating over 600lbs a year of recyclable plastics. With funding from the SSC this team could take 600lbs of plastic out of the waste stream using a clean pipette rip recycling program.

The program works through a partnership between VWR, a scientific supply company, and TerraCycle. With funding from the SSC, this team would purchase the pre-paid UPS shipping cardboard recycling boxes through VRW, fill them with clean rip boxes, and ship them to TerraCycle. At TerraCycle, the boxes 
are recycled into resin which is then used to make eco-friendly products such as park benches. Through the stated program, Teracycle will recycle every rip box it receives.To measure the reduction of waste this team will weigh each box as they send it out for recycling to track our total landfill reduction.This team would like to start with the VDL Molecular Lab, as it is the largest consumer of single use plastics. This team's vision is to eventually open this waste reduction to other units within the VDL as well as the entire CVM.