Australian pharmacy initiative diverts 3 million blister packs from landfill

Blooms the Chemist and Pharmacycle have marked a significant milestone by diverting more than three million medicinal blister packs from landfill since October 2022.

The initiative involves in-store blister pack collection boxes at all 115 Blooms the Chemist locations, resulting in the recycling of over 4000 kilograms of medicine packaging.

Kimberley Baldassarre, environmental impact committee lead at Blooms, said: Many Australians are unaware that blister packs, the packaging that pills and tablets come in, can’t be recycled through kerbside bins because they are made of various plastics and foils.

With the roll-out of convenient, in-store collection boxes, combined with encouragement and education from our passionate pharmacists, our customers have responded, and we have been overwhelmed by the uptake in recycling blister packs.

The success of the programme has led to an extension of the partnership between the two organisations.

Afonso Firmo, director of Pharmacycle, said: For blister packs to be recycled, they first need to be collected in sufficient volume to warrant the use of specialised recycling technology, and we have certainly managed to collect this volume with the help of Blooms. We are delighted that our partnership will continue.

Blooms the Chemist remains the only national pharmacy chain in Australia to offer such an initiative across its entire network.