These have been on the market for several years, and are available from a variety of suppliers. Altech Associates, Inc. of Deerfield, IL is a convenient source of SPE devices. Standard types of small scale laboratory glassware can be used for some supported reagent reactions, but the polypropylene devides have advantages in cost and convenience. The polypropylene reservoirs are essentially unbreakable, and can be reused. Only one of these would be necessary per lab, and usually can be purchased on a supplies budget.
Solvent use is minimum.
Most of the supports and many of the supported reagents and catalysts can be recycled or regenerated. One major feature of the supporting of reagents is that certain hazards can be reduced in a practical sense. The vapor pressure of volatile and noxious reagents can be reduced. The use of a vacuum manifold can greatly reduce the amount of volatile solvents released into the laboratory. Since most of the supports can be reused or recycled they do not need to be listed as hazardous waste.