GLYNNEATH PHARMACY COLLECTING EMPTY BLISTER PACKETS FOR RECYCLING

• A pharmacy in Glynneath, South Wales, is offering staff and customers the opportunity to recycle their empty medicine blister packs when they visit
• These blister packets are not recycled by local councils and so would otherwise end up in landfill or incineration
• Vale of Neath Pharmacy have purchased a number of TerraCycle®’s Zero Waste Boxes™  and set them up on the shop floor

Mr Niki Watts, Superintendent Pharmacy Director has purchased four of TerraCycle’s Empty Medicine Blister Packs Zero Waste Boxes on behalf of Vale of Neath Pharmacy, enabling them to collect and recycle any brand of empty medicine blister packs.

Unfortunately, due to the combination of materials which make up medicine blister packs, they cannot be recycled through traditional means such as kerbside collections as the costs of separating and processing them are just too high for councils to afford.

This means that the majority of empty blister packs end up in landfill or incineration, or worse, if disposed of incorrectly, in our oceans and waterways.

It’s no surprise then that pharmacies and consumers alike are looking for ways to reduce their environmental impact, which is what led Mr Watts to TerraCycle’s Zero Waste Box solutions. The practice now has a box on the shop floor where customers and staff can easily drop off their empty blister packs.

According to Mr Watts: “We’ve been offering this service to customers to bring in their empty blister packets for 3 to 4 months now and the uptake has been great as customers really care about reducing waste.

“We originally bought 3 medium sized boxes but have now purchased a larger box as we were filling one box every month!”

When full, the boxes are returned to TerraCycle for processing and the collected waste is first aggregated before being shredded, cleaned and melted into pellets. 

The resulting recycled pellet material can then be used by third parties to manufacture a variety of new products including outdoor furniture, bins, lumber for construction applications and much more.

Mr Watts continued: “Reducing our environmental impact has become a core part of our business, and tackling the amount of waste we were sending to landfill is integral to this.

“The Empty Medicine Blister Packs Zero Waste Box has been a great addition, proving very popular with staff and customers alike. In fact we’ve gained new customers who share our eco-friendly mindset and have seen an increase in footfall as a result of the boxes.”