Is our medication packaging recyclable?How to tell.

[kkatz]

I was filling my weekly dosage box and then come to getting rid of the packing.I presume the ones with foil like packaging is metal but is the plastic ones recyclable.Deep thoughts for a Sunday morning?

[Jalia]

Superdrug chemist chain take the foil packaging for recycling. I would imagine there are others doing similar.

[BobD Volunteer]

All my cardboard boxes go in the recycling but the foil and plastic pop out strips probabaly aren't as they are mixed. I often lob them in my stove and then retrieve the ally from the ashes next day.

[Frances123]

As Julia has said, Superdrug take them and is where I take all mine. I believe Lloyds Pharmacy take them as well. The boxes go in the recycling bin.

[Singwell]

In some places yes. We are very eco conscious in my town so there's a special collection point for blister packs, tetra packs and batteries.

[bantam12]

Depends what you can recycle in your area, all my pill packaging goes in recycling, cardboard, paper in one box and everything else in the other box.

[Silvasava]

My boxes and patient safety leaflets go in the recycling but unfortunately the foil blister packs have to go in the general rubbish as there is no recycling facility in my area. The nearest Superdrugs that take them are over 10 miles away

[Ppiman]

The outer card and paper packaging can be recycled (and likely will be), the rest, no, since its a mix of things (plastic and aluminium, often).

Fewer than 10% of plastic is genuinely recycled. It's a travesty and a myth that the recycle logo on packaging means anything at all. Cardboard and paper are often genuinely recycled, but hardly any plastics. Steel, glass and aluminium are recycled, too (although glass is often crushed for roadstone).

If you want to depress yourself, check the Greenpeace website on recycling. We are slowly degrading our planet, it seems.

Steve

[Vonnegut in reply to Ppiman]

Great to find you here too. We seem to have similar concerns. We are keen recyclers but my husband insists on putting those blister packs in the recycling when I don’t think they are suitable being a mixture of plastic and the silver stuff! I hope it doesn’t end up with all our recycling going in landfill or to the incinerator we spent ages campaigning against -

[Ppiman in reply to Vonnegut]

Tablet blister strips can be recycled at Superdrug stores, my wife now tells me, but they apparently mustn't be put in the "green" recycling bin. This pollutes the other genuinely recyclable materials and means the items have to be hand picked out and that is inefficient and expensive. They will end up sent to landfill or incineration.

I've read that there is a word for putting things into the green bin that shouldn't be there: "wishcycling"!

Steve

[Vonnegut in reply to Ppiman]

I’ll quote you to my husband- perhaps he’ll take more notice of a bloke!

[Ducky2003]

Superdrug. 😊.