I’ve just been clearing my meds area, which gets cluttered with empty blister packs, dead inhalers and cardboard boxes – enough to fill a supermarket carrier bag, to bursting, every couple of weeks, and it got me wondering just why blister packs were ever thought necessary.
I have five prescribed drugs in tablet/capsule form, and only one comes in a bottle (the bulk packs of those drugs I buy always do), so why is that? When I was a kid, tabs and caps came in cardboard boxes – a serious health hazard in a damp house – but, eventually, everything was dispensed in glass bottles which could be returned to the pharmacy for re-use – green or what?
Then some bean-counter decided that it was too expensive to wash the bottles for re-use, and the change was made to single-use plastic bottles which, were they still in use, could probably have been recycled. They did have the advantage that some of the larger ones could be added to my backpacking kit as useful foodstuff containers.
Then, of course, almost everything went into blister packs. These would have had some advantage had they all been calendar packs – great for the absent minded, to tell them when to take their meds, and show up the fact that they’d missed a dose. As a bonus, they would also keep the bemused up to speed with what day it was. But no, only a few went that route.
Blister packs have a downside. Well, two, actually, if you include the habit of the foil to slice into your fingers, the other being the mountain of crap they leave behind.
I’ve no idea what this amounts to nationwide, but based on what I put out, the amount must be vast. And you can’t recycle it as plastic is irremovably welded to foil.
Sainsbury’s Paracetamol Plus are in blister packs with a paper-foil composite. This is easier to get into than foil alone, and doesn’t create razor-sharp edges. It can also be completely peeled off the plastic blisters, should you be really desperate for something to do – but not easily, so some work still needed on that.
Blister-packed drugs come in cardboard boxes, which add to the refuse. They could be recycled, but as I’ve said previously, I have neither the space to sort my crap, nor the inclination. Nor the energy to make multiple trips to the bins even if I had the space. And, when it comes to considering whether my inhalers can be recycled, I really am past caring. (the answer, by the way, is no, and they are a mix of aluminium and plastic; steel too, possibly (in the valve spring)
Considering what we pay in council tax, maybe the councils should be sorting refuse for recycling, if they’re so concerned about it. Not only would it create jobs, it would go some way towards justifying the extortionate amounts they charge in tax.
But here’s an idea – instead of hassling and threatening the public over recycling, deal with at least this part of the problem at source – get rid of blister packs and put tablets and capsules back into bottles. Even single-use plastic bottles are better than the mountain of drug-related crap I currently have to dispose of – one bottle would take up about as much space as a single, scrunched-up 7-day blister-pack.
