A 61% lighter cell culture dish to reduce plastic waste

PLoS One. 2019 Apr 30;14(4):e0216251. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0216251. eCollection 2019.

Abstract

Cell culture is a ubiquitous and flexible research method. However, it heavily relies on plastic consumables generating millions of tonnes of plastic waste yearly. Plastic waste is a major and growing global concern. Here we describe a new cell culture dish that offers a culture area equivalent to three petri dishes but that is on average 61% lighter and occupies 67% less volume. Our dish is composed of a lid and three thin containers surrounded by a light outer shell. Cell culture can be performed in each of the containers sequentially. The outer shell provides the appropriate structure for the manipulation of the dish as a whole. The prototype was tested by sequentially growing cells in each of its containers. As a control, sequential cultures in groups of 3 petri dishes were performed. No statistical differences were found between the prototype and the control in terms of cell number, cell viability or cell distribution.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Cell Culture Techniques / instrumentation*
  • HeLa Cells
  • Humans
  • Plastics*
  • Polyesters / chemistry
  • Waste Products*

Substances

  • Plastics
  • Polyesters
  • Waste Products
  • poly(lactide)

Grants and funding

This work was supported by funding from the European Research Council (https://erc.europa.eu/) under the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP/2007-2013)/ ERC Grant Agreement No. 615458. Grant awarded to HAS. The funder had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.