Reusable Ice Pack Recovery
dun...@mskcc.org
Hi Green Labs Planning Group,
Do any of you have programs you could share to collect, sterilize, and redeploy reusable ice packs used within shipping?
Our NYC based research labs here at MSK have been steadily diverting reusable ice packs from the waste stream for years, donating them to CitiMeals on Wheels and the NYC Food Bank for use in their operations to battle food insecurity. We only collect clean packs from shipments that contained sealed, non-biohazardous material. We donated so many packs over the last few years that these organizations don’t have a need anymore. That, combined with COVID, has halted our ice pack donations program. Collections continue to pile up.
We’re pressing vendors for potential take back solutions without causing excessive transportation impacts, and have pressed for packaging innovations to avoid packs, but progress has stalled there as well.
Would love to hear any reuse solutions or ice pack alternatives employed by fellow Green Labs programs.
Thanks in advance,
Shane
Shane Dunne
Manager, Sustainability
Sustainability
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
1275 York Ave, 21st Floor, M2101F, New York, NY 10065
T 212.639.3693
dun...@mskcc.org
www.mskcc.org
P Please consider the environment before printing this email
=====================================================================
Please note that this e-mail and any files transmitted from
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center may be privileged, confidential,
and protected from disclosure under applicable law. If the reader of
this message is not the intended recipient, or an employee or agent
responsible for delivering this message to the intended recipient,
you are hereby notified that any reading, dissemination, distribution,
copying, or other use of this communication or any of its attachments
is strictly prohibited. If you have received this communication in
error, please notify the sender immediately by replying to this message
and deleting this message, any attachments, and all copies and backups
from your computer.
Barry Reid
--
--
** Please remember to change the subject header if you change topics **
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Green Labs Planning" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to green-labs-plan...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/green-labs-planning/8a74a3ae19444272962e8eca89f45ffc%40mskcc.org.
David Simpson
Hello Shane,
I am a lab manager / staff scientist at CU Boulder and also serve as a building team lead for the CU Green Labs program. We’ve had really good success over the past 4-5 years working with local businesses for donating used (but clean and non-contaminated) ice packs that are collected from dozens of labs within one of the largest bio research buildings on campus. We are currently partnered with a local chocolate company that uses these ice packs for shipping their temperature-sensitive chocolate around the US. Prior to this, we’ve worked with cheese companies and a berry farmer. The success of our program is due to several factors:
- Willingness of the university or institute to allow donation of these clean, but used and potentially (however very unlikely) bio or chemically hazardous ice packs to a third party
- CU put together a very simple waiver for this purpose
- A creative individual or team of people working to find local business partners interested in participating in the program
- An individual or team of people willing to spearhead and maintain the program
- Requires inspecting, sorting & packing ice packs before donating
In addition to a more formalized donation program as described above, we’ve also found that Craigslist ads for free ice packs can be a great option - again with the support of the university or institute (we use the same waiver for this type of donation).
I hope this info helps, but feel free to follow up if you have any additional questions.
Cheers,
Dave
David Simpson
Chuong Lab Manager
University of Colorado, Boulder
BioFrontiers Institute
3415 Colorado Ave
Boulder, CO
80303
--
dun...@mskcc.org
Thanks, Barry! Greatly appreciate you sending this along. We’ll dive into this option and engage our Corning rep and lab leads for availability and if this could provide a solution from the cell transport end.
Best,
Shane
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/green-labs-planning/E2072258-3620-4791-BD0C-7F2F1F3291DC%40gpescientific.co.uk.
*** Only open attachments or links from trusted senders. Report phishing to
inf...@mskcc.org ***
dun...@mskcc.org
Hi Dave,
Great information and work on local partnerships! Kudos to you and the CU team for driving this effort. This is a route we’ll look to explore further as the donation of ice packs could alleviate transportation related costs for smaller, local businesses, while meeting mutual environmental stewardship aims.
The Craigslist idea was a concept we kicked around in the past using lab and research specific list servs/forums and it’s worth re-exploring.
We’ll look to report successes back to the group, as able.
Thanks,
Shane
From: green-lab...@googlegroups.com <green-lab...@googlegroups.com>
On Behalf Of David Simpson
Sent: Friday, September 11, 2020 12:38 PM
To: green-lab...@googlegroups.com
Subject: [EXTERNAL] Re: Reusable Ice Pack Recovery
Hello Shane,
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/green-labs-planning/4D18CE03-3E92-451C-894B-D1E2E28A84D7%40colorado.edu.
*** Only open attachments or links from trusted senders. Report phishing to
inf...@mskcc.org ***
=====================================================================