Two Salisbury men start scheme to recycle blister packs

Piers Nicholson, 90, and Anthony Warley, 70, have decided to do something about the number of blister packs that are not being properly recycled.

Blister packs are used as unit-dose packaging for pharmaceutical tablets and capsules. They provide barrier protection for shelf-life requirements and a degree of tamper resistance.

However, blister packs cannot be put into normal recycle bins because they are made of two types of aluminium, which are very difficult to separate. As a result, around 1.5 million of them mainly end up in landfills.

The basic problem is that the value of the recycled products is very much less than the recycling cost. So the only two specialist recycling companies charge to send a box which can be sent back when it is full.

Superdrug had a collection scheme of blister packs but that stopped in 2024.

Blister pack collection (Image: Newsquest) Piers said: “I don’t want my blister packs to end up in landfill, so I thought I would do something about it.”

Along with his friend Anthony, Piers tried out a scheme where he paid for the first collection box at £108 and set up pop-up collection points for people to drop off their blister packs. He asks for a donation of £1 per 50 packs to pay for the next box.

The pair will then send all the collected blister packs to the MY Group, which is a specialised recycling company up in Hull.

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Piers said: “This is not going to change the world by itself but if individual people just wait for the government to do something, then nothing will happen in this world.”

On Friday, January 10 from 10 am to 2 pm the pair set up a second trial scheme outside Henderson’s coffee bar in the Market Place with another donated box. By the end of the day, the box was overflowing with blister packs and the pair were overwhelmed with support.

At the end of the day, Anthony said: “We have collected at least six thousand blister packs today which is amazing.

“This is a good example of what concerned citizens can do by themselves to help mitigate the immediate problems of pollution and climate change, rather than waiting for the government to get it sorted.”

The pair plan to repeat the event on March 10, and hope to start similar schemes in Wilton, Amesbury, Downton and Fordingbrige.

Image Credits and Reference: https://www.salisburyjournal.co.uk/news/24852375.two-salisbury-men-start-scheme-recycle-blister-packs/?ref=rss