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Blog #1 LabCycle
Jinghui (Helen) Liang is a final year PhD from the Centre for Sustainable Circular Technologies (CSCT) and her research background is in Microbiology and Biotechnology. After witnessing the huge amounts of single used plastic waste generated in research labs, Jinghui felt strongly that it was time for action to make research more sustainable. Jingui was awarded the Alumni Innovation Award by the University of Bath at the end of 2020. Winners of the Innovation Award are funded for one year to set up and develop their business. Winners are supported by SETsquared Bath and are allocated a dedicated Entrepreneur in Residence.
Plastic waste is not only a problem in our day to day life, but also a huge issue in the research sector. Scientific research uses a lot of single used plastics such as centrifuge tubes, pipette tips and plates. At the moment, these plastic wastes are sent to landfills or incinerators, due to concerns about health and safety and a lack of recycling service. However, to reach the Net Zero Target, it is time to take the lab plastic waste problem more seriously. LabCycle aims to decontaminate and recycle the single-used lab plastic waste and establish a circular economy in the research sector.
#1 Jinghui’s first blog post for LabCycle (March 2021)
My journey with LabCycle started in October 2019, when I met my co-founders Minal and Colin from the University of Surrey in 3-Day Start-up training workshop organised by SETsquared. It was a valuable opportunity to meet like-minded people, build business models and develop my business skills. Since then, thanks to the wide range of resources and opportunities provided by SETsquared Bath and Surrey Student Enterprise, as well as the support offered by Sustainable Tech Business Accelerator Hub (STBAH), LabCycle has come a long way, from being just an idea to winning several business competitions. In January 2021, we officially registered the company as LabCycle Ltd.
Single-use lab plastic waste generated by an anonymous researcher in an average working week.
In the past year, the world has been different, and it has been challenging to manage my final-year PhD and a start-up company at the same time, but I have learned so much and I really enjoyed it. To some extent, I feel that being a researcher has prepared me to be an entrepreneur, as they share so many transferable skills and spirits. There are always ups and downs, no matter it is in research or in a start-up, but passion and resilience will keep us going.
This year, we will be focused on optimising our process in a larger scale trial run, extending our network and seeking funding. I look forward to sharing our latest update with you in the next post!