Australia's Science Forum

Enjoy your meal YUMMY!

I put my microwave in the fume hood when nuking the plates - no nasty smells or aerosols. I used to find the oven bags occasionally broke when using a pressure cooker, and the steam and stench when I removed the lid! The pressure cooker here is quite shallow, and one day the bag blocked the safety valve, causing it to fly out, which then made the bags break and agar shot out at very high speed all over the roof!!! Apparently it also happened to the previous labbie on a few occasions, but no one bothered to worry about the OHS implications and she kept using it. That's why I refuse to use it again and have a microwave.

Snoopy

Would never autoclave or microwave plates. On the advice of a microbiologist, I put the plates in a plastic bag, add bleach, seal, agitate a bit and then bin them. No aerosols, no yukky mess!
Liz

Oh hey Snoopy, where's the photos? That must have been worth a photo or two, surely!

I was wondering what all of you labbies who like me, do not have an autoclave, do to sterilise used agar plates? What are the alternatives to autoclaving?

Sharlene

Hi Sharls, do a search and you'll find heaps on this. I myself cook in oven bags in the microwave for a total of 15mins but as I say do a search and you'll find a whole lot of info goodluck!!! MariaC

Some people nuke 'em in a microwave oven. Don't know how effective this is.
OR You could do what one labbie I know does. Tie 'em up in a plastic bag and put in garbage. She can't see the difference between them and food that has come out of some people's fridges and school bags

Hi Sharls, I cook mine in a pressure cooker for 15 minutes (15 minutes of boiling), wrap in newspaper and put in the rubbish.

This may help with sterillising agar plates, for some reason I can not merge this post.

Do hope it helps.

Hi Kay, this may help you.

We have just bought bacterial cultures from Southern Biological, and they recommend
'all equipment is sterilised prior to disposal. Sterilise at 121oC & a pressure of 15psi for 20-30minutes prior to disposal'
On another sheet for 'antiobiotics & bacteria'
"All bacterial cultures sold by Southern Biological are generally considered to be non-pathogenic, although it is essential that students and teachersuse and regard ALL bacteria as potentially dangerous. For this reason, all plates, swabs, cultures, etc, should be autoclaved or incinerated after use. If heat sterilisation is not an option, use undiluted bleach on cultures prior to disposal. 70% alcohol should be made available for skin disinfection in the case of accidental contact with the cultures."

Hope this has helped, it did for me
Cheers
Lisa

I microwave them, then put bag inside another one containing disinfectant and it goes to the big skip bin....
Have you ever seen what grows in those bins????
At least our waste has been dealt with!