The Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute has come up with a new initiative for laboratory waste management. The institute has set up a glass crushing unit that will manage the recycling of refuse glass bottles in laboratories by pulverising them into sand-like shreds which can then be used for construction works.

The unit, which was designed by Anoop Augustine of the Maintenance and Estate Cell of the CMFRI, was part of the Swachh Bharat programme of the institute. A 1-litre glass bottle can be crushed into granules within two seconds at the unit, which requires 6 units of electricity per hour of operation.

Besides laboratory glass bottles, all refuse glass materials, including tube lights, can be recycled in the same way using the facility.

CMFRI Director A Gopalakrishnan, who inaugurated the functioning of the glass crushing unit, said laboratories could be kept environment-friendly through the proper management of recycling the glass bottles in the lab after the use.

Laboratories use a lot of glass bottles to store chemicals, but those bottles are accumulated as non-gradable wastes in the lab or its premises after use.

The glass crushing unit will be of great help to convert all this waste into recycled material for further use in other purposes, he said.

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