Blister packs are made from a combination of materials like plastic and aluminium making them unrecyclable through household kerbside recycling. Pharmacycle's unique recycling process turns blister packs into valuable materials.
From bustling cities to remote towns, our network of collection points across Australia gathers blister packs from pharmacies, hospitals, and more. Once collected, the packs begin their transformation journey, heading to our processing facility. There, the materials are carefully weighed and checked in, ready to become part of something extraordinary.
At our cutting-edge processing facility, we put the blister packs through a rigorous preparation process. First, we inspect the materials to ensure they’re free of residual medicines and contamination before they go through an initial pre shredding process.
The blister packs are then fed into our proprietary separation machine. This machine expertly breaks down the packs, separating the aluminium from the plastic, paving the way for each material to find a new purpose.
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The separated materials re-enter the economy as valuable raw materials, fueling the creation of new products and championing the circular economy.
The aluminium is sent to Weston Aluminium in the Hunter Valley, NSW, the recovered aluminium is reprocessed into de-oxidant pucks that are utilised in the steelmaking process.
The plastic is transported to Think Fencing in Portarlington, VIC, where the reclaimed plastics are transformed into durable and versatile products like PVC decking and fencing.Together, these materials are given a second life, reducing waste and contributing to a more sustainable planet.
Come with us on a journey to see behind the scenes on how we give blister packs a second life.
Pharmacycle is Australia’s first and only end to end recycling program for household and commercial medicinal blister pack waste.
It is the quick and easy way to recycle empty medicinal blister packs. Best of all, it’s completely FREE to drop off at a participating pharmacy. You can find your nearest drop off location here.
Pharmacycle is a voluntary recycling program, funded by participating pharmacies, industry sponsors and government organisations.
Pharmacycle is a complete end-to-end solution for the recycling of medicinal blister packs. Pharmacycle manages all of the collection, logistics and processing of blister packs, providing full transparency and traceability.
Using specialised recycling technology, located right here in Australia, Pharmacycle ensures that blister packs collected for recycling are actually recycled.
Collected blister packs are transported to our processing facility located in Sydney.
Each box or bag received at our processing facility is checked in and weighed allowing us to track and report on performance across our network of public drop off locations and participating organisations.
Once weights have been recorded, the contents of full boxes/bags are emptied onto a sorting table for a visual quality control check.
Any contamination, such as residual medication still in packaging, paperboard packaging, or non-accepted packaging is removed and managed accordingly (recycled where possible). Any residual medication that is identified is removed and placed in a sealed container, which when full is sent to an appropriately licenced facility for disposal.
The empty blister packs are then put through a series of mechanical recycling processes to separate the aluminium foil/seal from the plastic blister. The steps include shredding, grinding, air-density separation, and finally electrostatic separation.
Once separated the aluminium and plastic material is kept in bulk bags until enough material is ready to be sent to end-users.
When it comes to items that Australians wished they could recycle, blister packs top the list. However, as blister packs are made of different materials, including plastic and aluminium, they cannot be recycled through kerbside recycling.
This means that every year, hundreds of millions of blister packs are either sent to landfill or incorrectly placed into kerbside recycling, contaminating other materials streams.
For blister packs to be recycled, they first need to be collected in sufficient volumes to warrant the use of specialised recycling technology. Pharmacycle provides the mechanism to achieve this, making the wish to recycle blister packs a reality.
