December 15, 2021
Medicinal Blister Packs Now Recyclable in Big Announcement from Chemists’ Own and TerraCycle
Chemists’ Own has launched the country’s first-ever free recycling program for household blister pack waste. In partnership with innovative recycling company TerraCycle, the program will address the problem of medicinal blister pack rubbish by allowing Australians to drop off their empty blister packs at participating pharmacies.
With 49 participating Alliance Pharmacy stores across New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland, with a view to adding more stores in the future, the first-in-market program invites Australians to visit participating stores to drop off all over-the-counter blister packs to be completely recycled.
In a recent survey conducted by TerraCycle, blister packs topped the list of items Australians wished to recycle. The results, detailed in the Household Recycling in Australia 2021: A TerraCycle Report, revealed 40% of those surveyed wanted a recycling solution for blister pack waste.
Blister packs are made of various plastics, foils, and paper foils, which means they can’t be recycled in your kerbside bin. Every year, this amounts to an enormous amount of plastic waste which goes into landfill, where it takes hundreds of years to break down.
To locate a participating store to drop-off blister pack waste for recycling, visit: https://www.terracycle.com/en-AU/brigades/chemists-own-blister-pack-recycling-program
Be sure to return any unwanted or expired medicines when dropping off your blister pack waste.