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Source: Boots

Boots has become the latest retailer to launch a recycling initiative for medicine blister packs.

The health & beauty retailer has put dedicated blister pack collection bins in over 100 stores in London and the south east, ahead of a planned rollout to more branches across the UK next year.

Blister packs for medicines and vitamins cannot typically be recycled through household kerbside collections.

To recycle them via Boots, shoppers must first create an account at https://boots.scan2recycle.com. They must then log empty blister packs online and wait up to 24 hours for them to be validated. Finally they must scan a QR code on a blister pack collection box at a participating store before depositing the empty packs.

Loyalty scheme members will be rewarded with 150 points on their Boots Advantage Card when they recycle 15 empty blister packs and spend £10 in store.

Boots is accepting packs of any brand, to be sent to its recycling partner MyGroup, which will separate the aluminium foil and plastic. The foil will be recycled by conventional means while the plastic will be processed back into useable form or material used in construction or furniture, according to Boots.

Customers with a Boots Advantage Card can also track the recycling of the packs.

The initiative is part of a wider ‘Recycle at Boots’ scheme collecting hard-to-recycle health & beauty product packaging via bins in over 700 stores.

“We will be taking the learnings of this initial pilot on board as we look to roll the scheme out more widely within the next year,” said Boots head of ESG Natalie Gourlay.

Aldi has been piloting a blister pack recycling scheme since 2022 in partnership with TerraCycle.

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