Medicine Bottle Mountain

An item I have talked a bit about before but still want to see in a circular economic system is Medicine bottles. Medicine bottles could easily enter a circular economic system as it is an item that is used daily by most people and when it is empty it loses value. You can’t ask for your medicine in the same bottle and pharmacies don’t request them back. These bottles could either be sanitized again or melted down to create them again. In the past medicine was in glass bottles which could also be an option due to it being generally chemically inert. It is frustrating to see a lack of a circular system for this item as the pharmaceutical industry produces 194 billion plastic pill bottles a year! There is no reason besides profit for this lack of sustainability especially as 90% of these bottles land in landfills. Due to the size of medicine bottles they are generally not recyclable as they will simply fall through the machine. The plastic they are made from is recyclable but the size makes them unable to be sorted at most recycling plants. We need a place to recycle and refine this plastic so we do not create more of it. With that in place pharmacies and stores can provide a drop off location for these bottles which can then be recycled into the same goods. A switch back to glass is also an option, but glass is heavy and can break easier which makes it less desirable. A company known as Cabinet Health is trying to create a new system for this issue by sending medicine in parcels that can then be emptied into glass bottles which are reused. This is an option but still creates waste and the bottles are expensive. The world just needs to be open to renovation and innovation to help create a safer world without the need for single use plastics that are thrown into landfills.