Grenova News

After working in the laboratory consumables market for eight years, Ali Safavi, founder and CEO of Grenova Solutions, realized that the industry would not be able to sustain itself indefinitely. Working as a laboratory engineer, Safavi took notice of the sheer amount of plastic waste accumulating around him each day. He quickly saw that pipette tips, which he previously considered small and easily dispensable, were to blame for a sizable portion of the laboratory plastic waste created. There was no way to reuse pipette tips, and recycling these products was often costly. Safavi explains, “I worked in the industry for quite some time, and during that time I discovered that there is a hole in the laboratory consumables market. It’s a linear, not cyclical model; it’s not sustainable and it won’t last forever. For me, I found that plastic consumables were being discarded after a single use, and I saw that there was no way that the industry could sustain itself forever.” 

In a laboratory, tough decisions are regularly made to determine how best to conduct critical experiments and testing. Over time, pipette tips have adapted to suit labs across the globe and provide the tools so technicians and scientists have the ability to do important research. This is especially true as COVID-19 continues to spread throughout the United States. Epidemiologists and virologists are working around the clock to come up with a treatment for the virus. Filtered pipette tips made of plastics are used to study the virus and the once bulky, glass pipettes now are sleek and automated. A total of 10 plastic pipette tips are used to perform a single COVID-19 test currently and most of the tips that are used now have a filter in them that is supposed to block out 100% of aerosols and prevent cross contamination when sampling. But how much are these significantly more expensive and environmentally costly tips really benefiting labs across the country? Should labs decide to ditch the filter? 

Companies around the world are increasingly realizing the importance of reducing their plastic waste. Aramark, the Coca Cola Company, and McDonalds are only a few of the large businesses who have committed to reducing their single-use plastics and increasing their use of reusable and compostable products. Big names are starting to use their platforms and resources to help drive real change to reduce single-use plastics.  

When pipettes were invented in the 19th century by Luis Pasteur, little thought was given to the environment and even less thought was given to laboratory consumables like pipette tips. But as laboratory research testing increases with the onset of new viruses, like COVID-19, and ever-changing government regulations are signed into law, everything laboratories do now is amplified. This includes what these labs do for the environment. To demonstrate Grenova’s impact on the lab industry and the environment, our team partnered with third party researchers to study how technology created by Grenova to wash and reuse pipette tips can reduce the carbon footprint of manufactured pipette tips. 

Grenova’s founder Ali Safavi was asked to present at TEDxYouth to address the steady rise in plastic biohazard waste produced from the laboratory and healthcare industry. In his inspiring presentation, Ali shared his mission to create a future free from plastic pollution—a future that is filled with an abundance of life, not an abundance of plastic.

Grenova’s founder and CEO, Ali Safavi, will present ways to reduce the science community’s plastic waste during LABVOLUTION, a flagship European trade show for innovative lab equipment. Hosted May 21-23, this year’s conference will focus on the theme of "The Integrated Lab,” signaling the show's strong emphasis on connectivity. LABVOLUTION documents and showcases every facet of laboratory practice – including technology, infrastructure and analytics solutions for labs in all sectors (including the chemicals and pharmaceuticals industries, the life sciences, biotechnology, environmental technology, food technology, medicine and R&D). The highly anticipated event attracts a core constituency of lab leaders from northern, eastern and western Germany, the Benelux states, France, the UK, Ireland, Scandinavia, Poland and parts of Eastern Europe.

Grenova has been featured in an informative article, titled “In a 'growth phase,' Richmond-based Grenova has opened a new office and production plant,” by John Blackwell in the Richmond Times Dispatch. The feature article details Grenova’s recent expansion resulting in the move to a new, 10,000-square-foot office and manufacturing plant in Clopton Siteworks.

Since 2015, Grenova’s pipette tip re-use systems have enabled laboratories across America to prevent 170K pounds of recyclable plastic from entering the environment and redistribute associated costs in the amount of over $4.3 million. If 62 million reused tips can contribute to that kind of savings, imagine if every laboratory took advantage of Grenova’s patented technology.