I don’t know if this will be allowed but I have just joined a Facebook page called:
B*****s to Blister Packs
I’m drowning under bags full of blister packs which will not be recycled and I refuse to send them to landfill. Everywhere that has started collecting them to ‘recycle’ seem to have given up after a trial period. The plan is to bag or box them up and send them back to the MHRA (humans) or VMD (animals). The addresses are on the Facebook page. I’m filling boxes and sending them to them via Royal Mail who will collect from my house. As soon as they are receiving overwhelming amounts of blister packs, nothing will be done. They are the ones with the money who should be taking more responsible action to produce packaging that can be reused or easily recyclable.
I really hope that Admin allow this post. I am just one person and my pantry is half full of Blister Packs. I know it’s just one small thing to save our planet but please help. I’m also spreading the word to all my friends. Thank you.
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Blackwitch
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I often wonder how we survived all those years ago before blister packs were invented. Now it seems you can get a blister pack for pretty much anything ☹️
I do realise that drugs have got more sophisticated and possibly degrade more easily but there was a lot to be said for a bottle of aspirin or paracetamol
What do these councils who don’t take them in the recycling bin tell people to do with them? I have never seen anything referring to foil blister packs in the literature put out by councils when they tell you what NOT to put in each bin.
It’s an odd one because, I believe, there’s a special process (far too expensive for our recycling centre) to separate the plastic from the foil. Funnily enough my husband did discover that one pill he was taking was in an all foil pack. Perhaps that’s the way they’ll go and cut out the plastic altogether.
Hope you’re keeping as well as possible AC. Nic xx
What an interesting post! I too drown in blister packs for every conceivable medication and must say I chuck them out with the other rubbish and haven’t really given them much thought.
Having said that I’ve just done the Greenpeace Big Plastic Count which appalled me but didn’t count blister packs………
I am also prescribed single use eye drops for glaucoma which have a plastic twist off top which I’ve been cross about for years but I shall start taking much more notice of the medication packaging now so thank you for bringing this to, I suspect, the attention many people!
Those twist off top eye drop vials are a nightmare. Some are single use but some you can (if you have magic fairy fingers) will click back on. As for squeezing out the drops 😱 what a nightmare that is. I used them for my Sjögren’s dry eyes but have reverted to Thealoz Duo which are bigger pots and even though they’re preservative free, they last up to 6 months from opening.
I have protested every time when I go for my glaucoma check about these single use vials. Firstly about the plastic waste of the vials but also, like you, trying to squeeze them with my arthritic mitts! Hardly designed for the patients on either count! Have got nowhere yet with my protestations but will keep on…………😤🤬
Our nearest is 10 miles away and last time I went (for a Covid jab at Boots) there was a sign to say please don’t leave any more blister packs because we have no room for them. The cardboard bin was surrounded by bin bags full of blister packs.
You make a very good point. So far I've been more frustrated that I can't get the meds out of the damn things with my dodgy fingers! But I have commented to my husband about excessive packaging, something needs to be done.
I tried a pill popper device from the pharmacy but all it did was crush the tablets 🙄 Sometimes I just have to ask for help before I get too frustrated! Sounds daft but I don't mind asking for help with big things but not being able to take a simple tablet really frustrates me.
I wear my fingernail to a ridge partway through with the poking medicine out of blister packs, and a capsule callous has formed. ridonkulous. mostly it reminds me to keep up doing my small bits of exercise, small increments have an effect. 21 pokes a day makes a difference...
Thanks for bringing this to my attention. Although I thought I was quite thorough with my recycling I had always thrown blister packs in with general rubbish. I hadn’t heard of blister packs being recycled but I shall now keep my eyes open and see if I can locate any recycling places near me .
You can get an app ‘ recycle at Boots’ and get extra points on Boots card . I only downloaded it yesterday so i haven’t tried it yet, its says my local Boots does it though I haven’t noticed the recycling container. Hopefully it won’t be overflowing!!
Ours stopped taking them last year. We saved them to take to a Superdrug with a pharmacy 25 miles away but near my hospital so always dropped ours off then but they don’t take them any more.
Our Council says put in plastic collection so here it’s ok. But I do support what you’re doing , I hate them and all overpacked items. So much waste these days.
I had no idea that this was a problem as my recycling seem to take them fine but as you point out they may be rejecting them to landfill further down the line and this thought horrifies me.
Other bugbears on same vein are padded envelopes with bubble wrap lining built in and a local council owned cemetery where a huge number of people leave plastic flowers for their loved ones - which blow all over the place. This makes me froth as it’s a such a beautiful place with red squirrels. I just don’t understand why it’s allowed.
I’m full of plastic with tiny silicone eye plugs, a portacth and soon, a colostomy - so I’m already taking advice on greenest way to go with that. It never ceases to horrify me how much profit these morally bankrupt Big Pharma companies make while not considering the consequences of their packaging. And I won’t even get started in the successive governments who’ve permitted this over the decades!
My husband was also moaning yesterday about a bubblewrap lined envelope. Yes, it’s definitely time to fight back but unless you’re prepared to complain or make any effort, nobody will do anything.
I do complain to the pharma companies I order direct from ie Coloplast - when they send me so much plastic inc black plastic non bio waste bags etc. But, like many others with chronic illnesses, I spend my life battling for “stuff” and am not well enough to try to locate stationary companies used by Amazon etc. I think the biggest lobbying voice we all have is through the ballot box and for me legislating to protect the environiment is my biggest priority. So if and when I’m canvased this is what I say now because I know if gets fed back if enough of us say this repeatedly and lobby our MPs and local councillors about it.
We have had a sitting Tory MP for so long, nobody ever bothers coming door to door any longer. I’ve emailed him on so many occasions about so many different things and requested an email reply to save paper. I’ve never had a reply within 2/3 months and if I do it’s always on House of Commons printed letter headed paper. I keep trying.
Brilliant idea. I shall be investigating recycling of all those horrible plastic blister packs and other medicine containers. It's been on my conscience for some time.
All our general waste ( black bin) is incinerated at an energy plant. Which provides electricity for homes. A lot of areas do this now. It is still important to recycle where possible but I put my blister packs in the black bin.
I regularly think plastic & foil “blister packs” need to change to a more environmentally appropriate solution. Also, I also, often wonder how many of the little circles of silver foil that pop open the pill I have inadvertently swallowed over the years 🫤
I've gone back to doorstep milk in glass bottles, and the average intelligent 4 year old can open a blister pack so not for drug security. My granddaughter even told me how the instructions on the top of some bottles means push down. Nigh on impossible for me but I'd bet a ten year old can do it.
I’d do exactly the same thing if I thought the empty bottles wouldn’t be smashed during the night. Our triplet grandchildren were always told that Grandma’s pills were, “Not A Toy’. If ever they saw me taking any they repeated, ‘Not A Toy’ but never showed any interest in them at all, never touched them or even looked at them. They are 12 now and I wish they’d come round more often to help open child-lock bottles, blister packs etc. I dispense into two weekly boxes every fortnight yet it always comes round in about 3 days! Mind you, I’ve run out of some pills so I may be deceased before they’re back in stock. Now there’s another rant. 😂😂 xx
I know how you feel, we’re a bit isolated so no through traffic but when I was a kid, bluetits were the problem not smashed bottles.How the world has changed. And medication shortages are here too. Even antibiotics how is that possable? And I saw a consultant yesterday rang at 9 in the surgery at 4 GP won’t ring till Monday. Good job vertigo isn’t life threatening. lol xx
Until last year our GP’s surgery had a recycling box & also the larger Superdrug’s with pharmacies. But not any more. I will look into our council taking them though. The amount I go through is scary!
Me too. I’m now collecting boxes to return them to The Medicines & Healthcare products Regulatory Agency. If enough people return their blister packs to them they will be forced to at least think about what they are doing to our planet.
Boots started a pilot scheme in London and the south in Feb. There are 100 stores that take blister packs and give advantage points. Possibly to be rolled out across the country during the year.
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