IBC tote recycling in Gaithersburg, Maryland

Biopharma, measurement and genetics

Gaithersburg’s employers include biopharmaceutical research and manufacturing, a federal measurement laboratory, genetic testing laboratories and vaccine manufacturing. Each is a different kind of tote source. A measurement lab uses standards and solvents; a genetics lab uses reagents; a vaccine plant uses media and buffers.

The employers, in order

The figures are from 2020 and are shown as context, not as a count of anyone’s totes today.

Records are the asset

Regulated sites keep batch records. A tote's last contents are written down, and the SDS confirms them. That makes a Gaithersburg request quick to grade, and it is why this page asks for the document.

A measurement lab and a vaccine plant side by side

The National Institute of Standards and Technology and Emergent BioSolutions are both on the list of local employers. They could hardly be more different in their tote needs: a measurement lab uses reference liquids and solvents in small volumes, and a vaccine plant uses media and buffers in larger ones. The common factor is paperwork.

Each page on this site asks the same first question, what the tote held, and the answer is usually on a label that was typed by a quality department.

Genetic testing and vaccine manufacture

GeneDx and Emergent BioSolutions, with 350 and 347 employees in the 2020 city report, represent the smaller end of the city’s list. Genetic testing uses reagents in small packages; a vaccine plant uses larger volumes of media and buffers. A request from either should carry the SDS for the main product.

Where to check first

For a large employer, the person who signs the waste manifests is the person to write. For a small laboratory, it is often the lab manager. Naming that role in the request saves a round of questions about who may approve a pickup.

Four kinds of laboratory

Biopharma, a measurement laboratory, genetic testing and vaccine manufacturing each handle totes differently. Name the kind of lab in the first line, and attach the SDS for the last product, so the answer can start from the right assumptions.

Asking from Gaithersburg

Gaithersburg ZIP codes are 20878, 20877, 20879 and 20899.