TerraCycle – the organisation behind the recycling scheme – does not currently have the necessary funding to widen the number of participating pharmacies, a spokesperson clarified to C+D.
The company launched a medicine packet recycling programme in September 2020, which allowed patients to recycle their used medicine blister packets.
The scheme initially involved 200 independent pharmacies that were later removed from the programme in May 2021, when three sponsors of the programme decided to withdraw from it.
The scheme is currently offered by 195 Superdrug pharmacies. Although the number of programme sponsors has now increased, no additional pharmacies can join at present under its existing funding, the TerraCycle spokesperson told C+D.
While the recycling programme initially saw an encouraging uptake, the resources TerraCycle allocated to it were not enough to process the large quantities of blister packs the organisation received, the organisation’s spokesperson told C+D.
A 'misinterpreation'
The scheme has been co-funded by Superdrug, Anadin, Buscopan, Dulcolax, Gaviscon, Nurofen, Panadol, and Rennie since July 2021, although 200 Superdrug pharmacies had already been offering the programme since January of that year.
However, these “new brands” were not referenced on the medicines packet recycling programme page on the TerraCycle website until November 2021, “when their logos were added to the programme page and the in-store collection box to highlight their involvement”, the spokesperson told C+D.
“It is the updating of these materials that appears to have been misinterpreted by some that new additional funding has been secured, which is not the case,” the spokesperson clarified.
However, Superdrug does not have “exclusive rights” over the programme and would welcome widespread involvement, they said.
A spokesperson for Superdrug confirmed this to C+D today (February 9), adding that it supports any form that involvement might take – be it from further investors or individual pharmacies establishing similar schemes with TerraCycle.