Blister pack pilot program takes off in Geelong

A NEW end-to-end recycling initiative aiming to prevent blister packs going to landfill has taken off in the City of Greater Geelong.

Rotary Club of Highton member Barb Sheehan said 60 blister pack collection boxes have been set up in 10 pharmacies across Greater Geelong in partnership with Rotary Club of Geelong East and recycling business pharmacycle.

“The idea to begin this initiative came from what we were seeing community members saying on social media.

“The community wants to recycle blister pack wastage and is a frequent topic of conversation in pharmacies.”

Pharmacycle, Australia’s only dedicated program to responsibly recycle blister pack waste from local pharmacies, collects discarded blister packs from registered pharmacies.

Once collected, the packs are put through mechanical recycling processes to separate the aluminium foil seal from the plastic blister.

Steps include, shredding, grinding, air-density separation, and electrostatic separation.

The aluminium and plastic materials are kept in bulk bags after separation and are then sent to end users.

Ms Sheahan, who has more than four decades of experience as a pharmacist, said this initiative was a first for the region.

“This type of initiative hasn’t been done in Geelong before, so we’re really excited to see how this pilot program goes.

“Blister packs are a mix of foil and plastic, meaning they cannot go into the yellow bins, they can’t be effectively recycled, and end up in landfill.

“With council funding, it will create awareness and measure how the community reacts. We will then revisit City of Greater Geelong in a year’s time to see if we can make this a permanent initiative.”

Rotary’s blister pack recycling pilot program officially launched on July 14.

The project was made possible by the City of Greater Geelong’s 2022-23 Environmental Sustainability Grants (Round Two).

The city allocated $10,000 to get the project up and running.

Collection boxes can be found at pharmacies such as Portarlington Pharmacy, Priceline Pharmacy East Geelong, Ocean Grove Terrace Pharmacy, Community Care Chemist in Newcomb, Geelong Soul Pattinson Pharmacy in Central Geelong, Pardeys Eastbrooke Pharmacy and Kardinia Pharmacy in Belmont, Peak Pharmacy Corio Central, Direct Chemist Outlet Highton and Mitchell and O’Hara Pharmacy in Geelong West.

pharmacycle has more than 200 collection points across Australia.

To find out more, head to pharmacycle.com.au