Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

I had tried out an experiment a few weeks ago involving growing bacteria from different water sources on agar plates at home. Now, I am done with the experiment and a few of my plates have bacterial colonies on them and one has fungi(???) on it. I have been keeping them within sealed ziploc bags and I've seen on many websites not to ever take them out of the bag once you put them in and not to take the cover off of the dish, and I've also seen here that before disposal, a 10% bleach solution should be poured directly on the agar. I'm a little confused on how to make this work while also safely disposing of the plates. Any help would be much appreciated!

Hello!

It should be fine for you to take the plates out of the bags and pour the 10% bleach solution onto the agar. The reason you keep the plates in the bags during the experiment is because it prevents the plates from becoming contaminated. But once the experiment is over, it's perfectly fine to take them out and bleach them. After you let them soak in the bleach, you can go ahead and throw them in the trash. Just make sure to wash your hands afterwards, and you should be good to go!

Thank you!!