Reducing Hazardous Materials and Waste | Thermo Fisher Scientific

Improve lab safety and help eliminate hazardous waste disposal costs.

We purchase thousands of different chemicals and other materials to manufacture our products. If not handled properly, some of these materials can pose serious risks to human health and the environment. We continually seek out opportunities to use less hazardous alternatives to reduce risks for our employees, customers and the communities where we operate. This helps mitigate the regulatory burden of using these chemicals while ensuring the future availability of our products.

Less hazardous criteria

Our products that are less hazardous meet one or more of the following criteria:

Is inherently less hazardous compared to preceding or comparable product
Is free of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) compared to preceding or comparable product
Reduces the need to use other hazardous materials
Generates less hazardous waste, emissions or discharges than preceding or comparable product
Is reformulated to not require Transport of Dangerous Goods (TDG) classification
Is free of ozone-depleting substances compared to preceding or comparable product

View complete list of Greener by design products

Browse selected less hazardous products

SYBR Safe DNA Gel Stain

SYBR Safe DNA Gel Stain is a highly sensitive stain for visualizing DNA in agarose or acrylamide gels. SYBR Safe stain is formulated to be less hazardous alternative to ethidium bromide that can be used with either blue-light or UV excitation.

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Sustainability impact: Classified as non-hazardous, SYBR Safe DNA Gel Stain avoids generating hazardous waste and the associated management and disposal costs. Additionally, it helps to reduce lab personnel's exposure to hazardous chemicals in the lab.

Solaris 4000R

The Thermo Scientific Solaris 4000R Large Incubated and Refrigerated Benchtop Orbital Shaker sets a new standard for reliability and technical innovation. Ruggedly built to handle demanding use while always maintaining consistent performance, the Solaris 4000R provides a better user experience with ergonomic enhancements and reduced noise, as well as a maintenance-free belt engineered to last the life of the shaker.

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Sustainability impact: The Solaris 4000R uses a refrigerant-free Peltier cooling system that is not only less hazardous but also more energy efficient. It consumes 58% less energy compared to prior models with traditional compressor technology.

Platinum Direct PCR Universal Master Mix

Unlike traditional DNA extraction protocols that require cleanup using hazardous reagents, the Invitrogen Platinum Direct PCR Universal Master Mix is designed to amplify DNA directly from various samples without the need to purify DNA. It includes an innovative buffer that enables universal primer annealing for superior performance in direct PCR applications and requires far fewer plastic consumables than traditional technologies.

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Sustainability impact: By providing a more streamlined protocol for DNA extraction, Platinum Direct PCR Universal Master Mix generates 99% less plastic waste than traditional workflows while eliminating the need for hazardous reagents such as ethanol, mercaptoethanol and guanidine salts.

DynaGreen Magnetic Beads

Invitrogen DynaGreen Protein A and DynaGreen Protein A/G magnetic bead products enable high-performance immunoprecipitation (IP) workflows. They offer a safer, less wasteful way to reproducibly isolate target proteins in a simple, efficient workflow.

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Sustainability impact: Free of microplastics, DynaGreen magnetic beads are a less hazardous and less wasteful solution for immunoprecipitation. Compared to similar products on the market, DynaGreen magnetic beads contain up to 48% less material and generate up to 57% less primary packaging waste.

Sustainability insights

Green Chemistry: Designing for a Sustainable Future

In this episode of the Science With a Twist podcast, our host Vinod Mirchandani welcomes John Warner, the co-founder, president, and CTO of the Warner-Babcock Institute for Green Chemistry, and co-founder of the non-profit, Beyond Benign. They talk about the role of green chemistry in sustainability, the importance of education, and why we need the right tools to build a world where the chemical building blocks of products used every day are healthier and safer for humans and the environment.

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Get the facts. Find details on all green product claims for each of our greener product lines.

We take sustainable product design seriously and believe all greener product claims should be transparently documented. For each of our greener product lines, we provide a green fact sheet that explains and substantiates the greener product claim(s) related to that product line.

Browse complete list of greener products