Following the successful establishment in Germany, Austria, France and the United Kingdom, Starlab is further expanding its innovative recycling program for laboratory plastics: from now on, Italian laboratories can also participate in the TipOne® recycling service.

“With the launch of our recycling service in Italy, we are responding to the high demand from the southern European market,” explains Klaus Ambos, Managing Director of Starlab International GmbH. “Our vision of a closed-loop circular economy for our best-selling product in the laboratory can now become reality in another important market.”

Cooperation with the REMONDIS Group

The success story of the TipOne® Recycling Service is based on close cooperation with REMONDIS Resource Management GmbH. Since the partnership began in 2020, the programme launched in Germany and Austria in 2021, expanded to the UK in 2022, and to France in 2023.

“Of the labs where Starlab supplies TipOne® tips, 23% are already participating in the program, and the recycling rate of TipOne® product was 24% in 2024,” says Ambos.

Recycling: a prerequisite for the closed loop

By consistently using polypropylene (PP) only in the TipOne® system, Starlab can process collected materials directly and efficiently into PP material as good as new. Since the beginning of 2025, new TipOne® racks manufactured in Germany have been made with recycled TipOne® material for the first time.

“The reuse of plastics for laboratory applications in the closed loop places particularly high demands on the recycling process,” explains Simon Sauer, Managing Director of REMONDIS Resource Management GmbH.

Highest quality material as the basis for sustainable recycling

“Quality and sustainability have always been inextricably linked for us,” emphasises Dr. Lennart Walter, TipOne® Product Manager at Starlab. “Our pipette tips are manufactured from 100 percent pure polypropylene under cleanroom conditions.”

The German government previously honoured the innovative recycling program with a research allowance – Starlab was the first company in the industry to receive this recognition from the certification body for research allowance (BSFZ). Italy is the fifth country to launch the recycling service.