A refill shop which has collected around 47kg of medicine blister packs in three months for recycling is calling for more pharmacies to “do their bit”.
The Refill Shop of Ikigai in St Ives has received more than 19,000 pill packets from residents in the town and surrounding areas since it started collecting in May.
"We had no idea there was such demand for this service!” Martin Cooper, shop owner, said.
"We had intended on collecting a few and then taking them to a recycling point at Superdrug pharmacy in Cambridge, once every few months to save so many individual journeys into the city.”
The shop, which helps people swap to plastic free alternatives and encourages reuse and refilling, is being helped out by Superdrug on Sidney Street in Cambridge.
Superdrug work with brands Anadin, Panadol, Nexium, Piriteze, Rennie, Nicorette, Imodium, Sudafed and Benadryl, and recycling partner Veolia, to include collection boxes in each of its pharmacies in the UK's first medicine recycling programme.
The amount of packets received in such short time by The Refill Shop of Ikigai has come as a surprise to Martin.
"Superdrug have been great - we are able to drop the lot off in one go, and they will be collected by their delivery drivers to be taken for recycling,” he said.
"But it shouldn't be just down to Superdrug to do this.
“If their pharmacy can team up with medicine brands and a recycling company, why can't the other big pharmacies like Boots and Lloyds - that are in most towns and cities across the country?"
Martin is now calling for other major pharmacies across the country to play their part in encouraging more recycling to be done.
He added: "To collect this many packets in one small shop in one small town, there is clearly a need for it to happen and we call on those other big pharmacies to do their bit for the planet."
The Refill Shop of Ikigai is focussed on ‘Iki’, meaning to live and ‘gai’ which describes value, meaning or purpose.
It aims to “give meaning and purpose, through reusing and recycling” as a way to prolong planet Earth’s life.
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