bioMérieux pushes for sustainable solutions in lab plastic recovery

FRANCE – bioMérieux, a French in vitro diagnostics company, is leading an innovative circular economy initiative, the BIOLOOP™ project, aimed at reusing plastic from petri dish waste while eliminating infectious risks.

The company’s long-term goal is to recycle plastic from infectious Petri dish waste and to offer reagents packaged using this recycled plastic to its customers.

The circular economy project, which has received funding from ADEME, the French Agency for Ecological Transition, will initially be carried out on a regional scale in France, on petri dishes used for culturing microorganisms. 

“With this initiative, we propose to collect Petri dishes from some of our customers, disinfect them, recycle the plastic and then reuse it in the manufacture of new Petri dishes. We’re studying the feasibility of this circular economy model, which would significantly reduce CO2 emissions linked to the production of plastic, but also to its incineration at the end of its life,” explains Lucie Deprez, who is spearheading the project alongside Emeline Leblanc.  

With BIOLOOP™, bioMérieux is taking the lead in saving resources and anticipating the expectations of its customers, whose environmental concerns are on the rise. 

“Today, reducing the production of plastic and waste is a real environmental and public health issue. This pioneering project for recycling infectious plastic waste is perfectly in line with our CSR commitments, and will also help our customers to achieve their own decarbonization objectives,” adds Oliver Faust, Senior Vice President, Corporate Social Responsibility at bioMérieux.

Progress towards plastic recovery and recycling

Since mid-2024, bioMérieux has been conducting feasibility tests on sorting, collecting and disinfecting Petri dishes, key steps in plastic recovery.

They launched a regional pre-pilot in France in December 2024, with an infectious waste management partner and select customers.

Although disinfection is still being tested and plastic recovery has not yet begun, the company is developing in-lab sorting processes, specialized DASRI containers, and communication tools to support implementation. 

Concurrently, technical tests on plastic recycling and reuse have shown promising early results.

While the collection of infectious waste from Petri dishes will initially be limited to specific regions, all customers will eventually be able to benefit from Petri dishes incorporating a certain percentage of recycled plastic, subject to the results of the tests planned in the next phases of the BIOLOOP™ project. 

By succeeding in producing a recycled plastic suitable for Petri dishes, the loop would be closed, enabling bioMérieux to use this plastic for its reagents.

Origin of the BIOLOOP™ Project

This project came about from bioMérieux’s InVENTURE intrapreneurship program, led by three female team members, two of whom are now continuing the adventure within the Health, Safety, Environment & Sustainability Department to develop it further. 

“The InVENTURE program has been a real accelerator: It enabled us to go far and fast with this project, testing things in fields far broader than our initial areas of expertise,” declared Lucie Deprez and Emeline Leblanc.

Created in 2020, InVENTURE enables all team members to propose innovative economic and technological concepts in line with bioMérieux’s strategy. So far, twelve projects have been completed or are currently underway at bioMérieux, resulting in the creation of one start-up.

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