Jul 22, 2025

Public workspaceWashing petri dishes for re-use in the lab and Fish Facility

DOI
https://dx.doi.org/10.17504/protocols.io.yxmvmbxkng3p/v1
Washing petri dishes for re-use in the lab and Fish Facility
  • Gaia Gestri1,
  • Kate Turner1,
  • Anya Suppermpool1,
  • Gareth Powell1
  • 1UCL
  • FishFloorUCL
Kate Turner
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DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.17504/protocols.io.yxmvmbxkng3p/v1
External link: https://zebrafishucl.org/plastic
Protocol Citation: Gaia Gestri, Kate Turner, Anya Suppermpool, Gareth Powell 2025. Washing petri dishes for re-use in the lab and Fish Facility. protocols.io https://dx.doi.org/10.17504/protocols.io.yxmvmbxkng3p/v1
License: This is an open access protocol distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License,  which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited
Protocol status: Working
We use this protocol and it's working
Created: July 14, 2025
Last Modified: July 22, 2025
Protocol Integer ID: 222412
Keywords: plastic reduction, petri dishes, green lab, sustainability, plastic petri dish, tons of plastic petri dish, petri dish, fish facility in zebrafish lab, zebrafish lab, simple washing protocol to clean, simple washing protocol, dish, reducing plastic consumption, washing, plastic consumption, fish facility, clean
Funders Acknowledgements:
MRC
Grant ID: 556922
Abstract
In zebrafish labs, we go through TONS of plastic petri dishes. Instead of discarding them after a single use, follow this simple washing protocol to CLEAN AND REUSE your dishes over and over again. Saving money and reducing plastic consumption.
Materials
Used petri dishes
70% ETOH
Mesh laundry bag
Large Bucket
Hot Water
Troubleshooting
Safety warnings
We DO NOT reuse petri dishes that have been used for drug treatments. For those experiments, consider switching to glass petri dishes, which are autoclavable and reusable.

Before start

We DO NOT reuse petri dishes that have been used for drug treatments. For those experiments, consider switching to glass petri dishes, which are autoclavable and reusable.





Collect used petri dishes. Remove all tape. Use 70% ETOH to remove the marker pen label.



Soak petri dishes in hot water for 20' or for best results O/N.
Drain petri dishes. Using a laundry bag makes the soaking and draining steps easier.


Dry plates thoroughly and restock fish room and embryology areas.
The only downside we’ve noticed with washing and reusing petri dishes is that they tend to be less sticky afterward. This is an issue when mounting embryos in agarose droplets for
procedures like OKR, imaging, or electroporation. To restore stickiness, simply: 1) Wipe the dish with a tissue soaked in ethanol; 2) Rinse thoroughly with RO water and soak overnight; 3) Finish with a rinse in fish water.
This quick prep makes the reused dishes behave just like new!

See Methods section: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-07367-3
There are alternative cleaning protocols. Cecelia Moens Lab use dilute bleach to soak their petri dishes.


Protocol references
Suppermpool, A., Lyons, D.G., Broom, E. et al. Sleep pressure modulates single-neuron synapse number in zebrafish. Nature 629, 639–645 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-024-07367-3

Acknowledgements
https://zebrafishucl.org/#zebrafish-green-lab
We would like to thank everyone who washes and restocks our petri dishes in the Fish Floor at UCL!