<div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,sans-serif">Dear Rachel,</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,sans-serif"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,sans-serif">Sorry I do not have an answer for you. But we at the Melbourne Centre for Nanofabrication, one of the Australian National Fabrication Facility centres are extremely interested in setting up a similar program. We have a quite active Green Impact Team and we have been trying to make our cleanroom slightly less wasteful (for instance, we are encouraging reuse of epaks and wafer/sample carriers where possible (they were previously all going to the bin after one use), we are also collecting Silicon waste for the first time (previously it was all going to the landfill)).</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,sans-serif"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,sans-serif">We recently started to collect our lab (packaging) soft plastic waste but the University we are affiliated to (Monash University) can only collect soft-plastic (LDPE) of very high quality, uncontaminated, not-dyed (only transparent), it should be slightly stretchable before it rips and should not make a crinkly noise when scrunched, no tape, no labels... </div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,sans-serif"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,sans-serif">For our "domestic" soft-plastic collection, which we also started collecting in the kitchen area, rules are much more flexible and thankfully we in Australia have the RedCycle program which collects all sorts of soft plastics from plastic bags to candy and chips wrappers. I wonder whether they might be able to help. </div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,sans-serif"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,sans-serif">Ideally we would like to start collecting our disposable cleanroom overshoes which are made out of a crinkly blue plastic and gloves, similar to you, we produce large amounts of this type of waste.</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,sans-serif"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,sans-serif">Of course things are a bit different here in Australia, but if you have received responses regarding this topic, could you please let me know?</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,sans-serif">If you have implemented other things in the cleanroom to make your workplace a bit more sustainable, would you mind sharing some ideas? I have been thinking for a while that we should join a group of cleanroom (or other manufacturing) facilities who have all embraced (or are trying to) a sustainable approach, if such a group exists, if it doesn't we should start one!</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,sans-serif"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,sans-serif">Thanks in advance,</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,sans-serif"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,sans-serif">Tatiana</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,sans-serif"><br></div><div><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div style="color:rgb(0,0,0)"><font face="arial narrow, sans-serif"><b>Tatiana Pinedo Rivera</b>, PhD<br></font></div><div style="color:rgb(0,0,0)"><font face="arial narrow, sans-serif"><font size="1">Nanolithography and Characterisation Team Leader</font><br><span style="font-size:x-small">Senior Process Engineer </span></font></div><div style="color:rgb(0,0,0)"><font face="arial narrow, sans-serif"><font size="1"><br>Melbourne Centre for Nanofabrication </font></font></div><div style="color:rgb(0,0,0)"><font face="arial narrow, sans-serif"><span style="font-size:11px">ANFF Victoria<br>151 Wellington Road, Clayton VIC 3168 Australia <br><br></span><span style="font-size:11px">P: +61 (0)3 9905 9660</span><span style="font-size:11px"><br>E: <a href="mailto:tatiana.pinedo@nanomelbourne.com" target="_blank">tatiana.pinedo@nanomelbourne.com</a><br>W: <a href="http://nanomelbourne.com" target="_blank">http://nanomelbourne.com</a></span></font></div><div style="color:rgb(0,0,0)"><font face="arial narrow, sans-serif"><br></font></div><div style="color:rgb(0,0,0)"><font face="arial narrow, sans-serif"><img src="https://docs.google.com/uc?export=download&id=1grGJ0x7zSGEDjFMQ_9V7yfxjLIrHtzro&revid=0B2svxH10JkpxbVE5akRHRC8rY0NKZEVkRTJtNU5VR3ZvU3dNPQ" width="200" height="75"><br></font></div></div></div></div></div></div><br></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Tue, 11 Jan 2022 at 09:23, Rachel Schoeppner <<a href="mailto:rlschoeppner@ucsb.edu">rlschoeppner@ucsb.edu</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left-width:1px;border-left-style:solid;border-left-color:rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><div style="word-wrap:break-word;line-break:after-white-space"><div dir="auto" style="word-wrap:break-word;line-break:after-white-space">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right:21.8pt;line-height:12.1pt"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Tahoma,sans-serif">Good Afternoon and Happy Monday!<u></u><u></u></span></p><div style="margin-right:21.8pt;line-height:12.1pt"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Tahoma,sans-serif"> </span><br></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right:21.8pt;line-height:12.1pt"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Tahoma,sans-serif">I am looking into developing a recycling program
for uncontaminated disposable gloves that my facility goes through in abundant
quantities, with the eventual goal of expanding to similar labs on campus. It
has become glaringly obvious that our facility, and ones like ours, use a vast
number of gloves that just end up in a landfill to decompose over the
course of many years to decades. I am hoping to start working to divert this waste stream and recycle as many gloves as we can by starting a disposable glove recycling program here at UCSB.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right:21.8pt;line-height:12.1pt"><font face="Tahoma, sans-serif"><span style="font-size:10.5pt"><br></span></font></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right:21.8pt;line-height:12.1pt"><font face="Tahoma, sans-serif"><span style="font-size:10.5pt">So as I am starting to gather data and more information about the best way to go about </span><span style="font-size:14px">this</span><span style="font-size:10.5pt">, I was wondering if</span><span style="font-size:14px"> </span><span style="font-size:10.5pt">any of your labs have looked
into similar initiatives that have been or are currently successful.
If so, I would be very interested to know how these programs were started, what companies you might go </span><span style="font-size:14px">through</span><span style="font-size:10.5pt"> for the recycling </span><span style="font-size:14px">since</span><span style="font-size:10.5pt"> most public recycling centers do not process these types of plastics, and any </span><span style="font-size:14px">ideas</span><span style="font-size:10.5pt"> for how to make the program financially viable (break-even, not turn a profit) rather than a drain on resources, which could lead to the eventual </span><span style="font-size:14px">failure</span><span style="font-size:10.5pt"> of the program.<u></u><u></u></span></font></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right:21.8pt;line-height:12.1pt"><br></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right:21.8pt;line-height:12.1pt"><font face="Tahoma, sans-serif"><span style="font-size:10.5pt">Thanks so </span><span style="font-size:14px">much</span><span style="font-size:10.5pt"> for your time!</span></font></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right:21.8pt;line-height:12.1pt"><font face="Tahoma, sans-serif"><span style="font-size:10.5pt"><br></span></font></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right:21.8pt;line-height:12.1pt"><font face="Tahoma, sans-serif"><span style="font-size:10.5pt">All the best,<u></u><u></u></span></font></p><div style="margin-right:21.8pt;line-height:12.1pt"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Tahoma,sans-serif"> </span><br></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right:21.8pt;line-height:12.1pt"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Tahoma,sans-serif">Rachel<u></u><u></u></span></p>
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<div dir="auto" style="font-family:Helvetica;font-size:12px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;text-decoration:none;color:rgb(0,0,0);word-wrap:break-word;line-break:after-white-space"><div dir="auto" style="color:rgb(0,0,0);letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;text-decoration:none;word-wrap:break-word;line-break:after-white-space"><div dir="auto" style="color:rgb(0,0,0);letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;text-decoration:none;word-wrap:break-word;line-break:after-white-space"><div dir="auto" style="color:rgb(0,0,0);letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;text-decoration:none;word-wrap:break-word;line-break:after-white-space"><div dir="auto" style="color:rgb(0,0,0);letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;text-decoration:none;word-wrap:break-word;line-break:after-white-space"><div dir="auto" style="color:rgb(0,0,0);letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;text-decoration:none;word-wrap:break-word;line-break:after-white-space"><div dir="auto" style="color:rgb(0,0,0);letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;text-decoration:none;word-wrap:break-word;line-break:after-white-space"><div><br>— </div><div><br></div><div><b>Rachel Schoeppner, Ph.D</b></div><div><b><br></b></div><div>Nanostructure Cleanroom Facility Manager</div><div>California NanoSystems Institute (CNSI)</div><div>University of California, Santa Barbara</div><div><div><a href="mailto:rlschoeppner@ucsb.edu" target="_blank">rlschoeppner@ucsb.edu</a></div><div><a href="mailto:rachel@cnsi.ucsb.edu" target="_blank">rachel@cnsi.ucsb.edu</a></div><div>(805)893-2296</div><div><br></div></div><div><br></div></div><br></div><br></div><br></div><br></div><br></div><br></div><br style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Helvetica;font-size:12px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;text-decoration:none"><br>
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