The UAB Green Marketplace is helping researchers stretch limited budgets by formalizing lab equipment reuse across campus. In its first four months of operation, the internal exchange platform has saved researchers nearly $100,000 by redistributing surplus equipment and supplies rather than requiring new purchases.
Managed by UAB Sustainability in collaboration with Environmental Health and Safety, the UAB Green Marketplace allows faculty and staff to post unneeded laboratory equipment and claim items from other labs at no cost. The initiative builds on a successful pilot conducted in 2023 and 2024 and now operates as a permanent campuswide resource.
UAB Green Marketplace accelerates lab startup and supports lab equipment reuse
For Mikaela Pyrch, PhD, assistant professor in the Department of Chemistry, the UAB Green Marketplace lowered the cost of launching her first research lab. By acquiring beakers, separatory funnels, ring stands, and other routine supplies through the platform, Pyrch saved more than $9,000.
Those savings enabled her to move more quickly to purchase a single-crystal X-ray diffractometer, one of the most expensive instruments on her startup's list and a core tool in structural chemistry research.
The redistributed equipment is already supporting active projects in Pyrch’s lab. The supplies are being used to synthesize new organic molecules designed to bind medically relevant metals. Her group is focused on combining short-lived isotopes of thorium and uranium with newly developed ligands for targeted alpha therapy, an emerging cancer treatment approach.
Lab members are also using UV lights obtained through the UAB Green Marketplace to read thin-layer chromatography plates, along with glassware for rotary evaporation and column chromatography workflows.
Recovering equipment through the Green Labs program
Beyond individual startups, the Green Labs program has enabled the recovery of equipment that might otherwise go unused. In addition to items voluntarily posted by active labs, the sustainability team has added equipment left behind when researchers retire or relocate.
“From just one abandoned lab, we were able to recover more than $39,000 in equipment and supplies,” said Emily Colpack, sustainability lead for UAB Sustainability. “UAB Green Marketplace is a great way for our researchers to save money and keep unused items from going into landfills.”
Advanced Lab Management Certificate
The Advanced Lab Management certificate is more than training—it’s a professional advantage.
Gain critical skills and IACET-approved CEUs that make a measurable difference.
The Comba Lab in the Department of Pathology is another example of how lab equipment reuse supports ongoing research operations. Since the UAB Green Marketplace launched, the lab has acquired a stereomicroscope, analytical balance, beakers, cold storage graduated cylinders and flasks, inoculation loops, surgical tools, and biohazard bags.
“Green Labs and the UAB Green Marketplace have significantly helped the Comba Lab with providing essential and crucial lab supplies that we use on a daily basis,” said Dilani Patel, researcher II and lab manager.
The lab studies novel therapies for brain cancers, including COL1A1's role in glioblastoma. Patel said access to redistributed equipment has supported the generation of GBM-inducing murine-derived neurosphere cell lines and mouse tumor models with altered COL1A1 expression.
Broader implications of the UAB Green Marketplace model
Although the UAB Green Marketplace is institution-specific, the program demonstrates how structured lab equipment reuse systems can reduce duplicate purchases and extend asset lifecycles.
Research labs frequently accumulate functioning instruments, glassware, and consumables that no longer align with active projects. Without a centralized redistribution system, those materials often remain in storage or are discarded.
By formalizing internal redistribution, UAB has created a mechanism to reduce duplicate purchases, extend the usable life of analytical and bench-scale equipment, support lab startup transitions, and divert usable materials from waste streams.
Pyrch said the platform offers a practical alternative to storing unused equipment. “Inevitably, research labs end up with equipment that is functioning but no longer needed by us,” she said. “Instead of letting it gather dust, you can post it here and make another lab’s dreams come true.”
This article was created with the assistance of Generative AI and has undergone editorial review before publishing.
