The discount grocery chain Aldi is trialling a blister pack recycling scheme for its own-label medicines in the UK. The pilot project is a cooperation between Britain’s fourth-largest supermarket and recycling firm Terracycle. According to Aldi, Terracycle will recycle the plastic and aluminium foil from the packaging enabling it to be used for the production of such as nuts and bolts from the aluminium, or plastic waste bins and outdoor furniture. The packaging would otherwise be disposed of with the residual waste.
Empty blister packs from all brands of medicine can be sent to Terracycle using a free shipping label, which can be accessed via the Aldi website. The labels can be used on envelopes as large as C4 size and containing up to 30 blister packs. The trial, which launches this week, is available to Aldi customers throughout the UK and would help the discounter assess the demand for the recycling solution. A limit of two shipping labels per month per customer has been applied.
Luke Emery, Plastics and Packaging Director at Aldi UK, said: “We hope our customers will get involved in the trial and embrace this new way of recycling their empty blister packets.”
Commenting on the project, Adam Herriott, senior specialist at the Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP), said, “Blister packs are a product that cannot currently be recycled at the kerbside and are instead disposed of in general waste, so we fully support this trial."
