How to recycle old blister packs
**UPDATE: UNFORTUNATELY THIS RECYCLING SCHEME HAS STOPPED**
You might have noticed by the door into St Cuthbert’s church, that you can now leave your old blister packs for recycling. The packs are taken on to Superdrug in Ashington.
Blister packs are made from rigid PVC with a cold form foil of aluminium and PVC. This is a durable way to protect medicines but they are hard to recycle so have usually gone to landfill. Fortunately, a company called Terracycle have schemes to recycle ‘hard to recycle’ things, such as crisp packets.
They work to collect and recycle blister packs through collection boxes and send them to processors.
The recycling scheme started in January 2021; ‘Little Packs, Big Impact’. It has been a popular scheme, but was overwhelming some chemist shops.
The packs are first cut into strips and then ground into powder, passing over an electrostatic separator that sifts the aluminium and leaves the plastic.
The plastic is turned into reusable pellet material (PET) that is used by other manufacturers to make new products such as outdoor furniture, bins, planters, and even school playgrounds. In addition, the aluminium can be recovered and reused.
Why are St Cuthbert’s Church doing this?
Well, as Christians we know that Jesus tasked us to care for creation – the planet. Caring is done by people of all faiths and none, and we want to contribute.
We are hoping to start other initiatives and join with other groups so that we can make a difference, through action and prayer.
I collect blister packs on behalf of Lions and have large bags of BPs for recycling.
How do I get them to you?
Need an address please
Our Eco Group in Suffolk has been doing this, but we are now victims of our own success and Superdrug will no longer take large quantities from us, as it causes them storage problems. We are trying to work on a more large scale solution …
I too am a Lion, and we have considered recycling tablet blister packs but as yet haven’t been able to find a route to dispose of them. Any help would be gratefully received.