Recycle your empty medicine blister packets through this programme
You can recycle your empty medicine blister packets in 2 different ways:
For all information on how to join this programme, please take a look at the "How It Works" section further down the page.
If you are a collector and there isn't a public drop-off location near you yet, we encourage you to check if your local pharmacy would be interested in setting up a public drop-off location.
There are 2 different ways to participate in this programme:
Find your nearest participating Superdrug pharmacy or local pharmacy on the interactive map above and drop off your empty medicine blister packets during their opening hours.
If there are no public drop-off locations nearby, registered UK pharmacies can apply to be added to the public drop-off location map above by following these steps:
To learn more about what public drop-off locations are and what it involves to set up one, please click here.
Once your pharmacy has been confirmed as a member of the programme (by setting up a public drop-off location) and when you are ready to send a parcel, please follow these steps:
Important: Please do not use your branded collection box to return your collected waste to us, this is provided for collection purposes only.
Please check out our Accepted Waste Poster below for more details.
Once collected, the empty blister packets are separated by polymer type and cleaned (if necessary). The material is then extruded into plastic pellets to make new recycled products. Click here to learn more about the recycling process.
This programme offers 100 TerraCycle® points for each kilogram of empty medicine blister packets sent.
For example:
500 grams = 50 TerraCycle® points
1 kilogram = 100 TerraCycle® points
2.5 kilograms = 250 TerraCycle® points
Please note that TerraCycle® points are credited to the accounts of public drop-off location administrators only as a reward for their collection efforts. The number of points given is determined by the weight of the parcel. 1 TerraCycle® point is worth 1 penny.
Once credited, the points can be redeemed into financial donations to the charity or school chosen by the owner of the points. The points must be redeemed on the TerraCycle® website.
TerraCycle® has partnered with healthcare brands Buscopan® and Dulcolax® to create a free recycling programme for any empty medicine blister packets. Sanofi Consumer Healthcare will be first to market in the UK with this sustainability initiative which will enable billions of medicine blister packs to be recycled. The programme addresses key concerns that 53%* of people are “very concerned” about plastic waste and 76%** concerned “more than a year ago” .
* Survey based on 484 people
** Survey based on 466 people