Reusable Prescription Bottles?
Every year Americans fill approximately 4 BILLIONÂ prescriptions. Let that sink in for a minute. That’s an average of 11 per person. Wow.
Now think about all those polypropylene bottles that house all those prescriptions, and you’ll quickly realize we have a looming issue on our hands.
Can we stop the unbelievable amount of plastic prescription bottles our nation produces every day? We certainly aren’t slowing down the amount of prescriptions, that’s for sure. And to make the matter worse, most municipalities don’t recycle medicine bottles because they are made with #5 plastics.
Here is a fantastic article that points out some of the issues we are facing, and the challenges of reducing the waste stream for this type of container.
So what are the options? We would have to look to the materials first. Tinted glass with metal caps are the first thing that come to mind, but recycling glass can be very energy intensive. Small paper envelopes are probably the best option. Take the script home and put it into your own bottle at home. Perhaps the envelope comes with a removeable sticker which you can put on your bottle which includes the name and expiration date of the medication inside.
To be honest, we don’t even know where to begin with this. Anyone have any ideas? Anyone work in a pharmacy? Can this be done?
