Health and beauty retailer Boots has expanded its medicine blister pack recycling scheme across the UK to more than 800 stores.
The move comes after a successful trial in parts of the UK, which launched in 100 stores in February 2024.
Blister packs, commonly used for vitamins and medicines, are made of plastic and foil and cannot typically be recycled through household kerbside collections. The blister pack recycling scheme at Boots is part of the retailer’s Recycle at Boots initiative, which is delivered alongside technology partner Metrisk and recycling partner MYGroup.
Customers are rewarded with 100 Boots Advantage Card points each time they deposit five empty blister packs for recycling and then spend £5 or more with the retailer.
MyGroup, which is based in Hull and processes the blister packs as well as plastic beauty bottles collected by Boots as part of the retailer’s wider scheme, recycles the plastic material into playground equipment and furniture to give it a new life rather than it going straight to landfill or incineration. The foil can be separated and made into new foil products.
Boots said more than 170,000 customers signed up to a pilot scheme in London and the south-east last year.
Candice Smith, head of ESG at Boots, commented: “Taking medicines or vitamins in blister pack packaging is an essential part of everyday life for many of us – even more so during the winter when it is peak cough cold season.
“We know from our pilot scheme that people want a recycling solution for their empty blister packs, which is why we’re now making it available in towns and cities across the country. We look forward to seeing the recycled materials take on a new life as playground equipment and furniture.”
The Recycle at Boots initiative is brand agnostic, meaning consumers can recycle empty blister packs and other hard to recycle empties from any brand – not just goods they bought in Boots – and track their recycling. All they require is to be signed up to the Boots Advantage Card loyalty scheme.
The process to recycle involves logging empty blister packs in the app and waiting for up to 24 hours until they are validated. Consumers then take their empty packs into a participating Boots store and scan the QR code on the blister pack deposit box.
[image credit: Green Retail World]
