Chromatography Forum

Does anyone recycle HPLC columns? (dried out, collapsed beds etc) Seems a bit of waste just throwing them away.

Phenomenex used to many years ago, but I don't know if they still offer that service. A large part of the cost of producing a column is labor, and the time to dismantle the column, check the components, replace anything that doesn't pass, and dispose of the old packing costs more than new hardware. Add to that the safety issues associated with not knowing what's gone through the column, and it's not a very attractive business proposition.