Foreword
According to UK-based environmental NGO WRAP (Waste and Resources Action Program), about a third of the 141 million tons of plastic packaging produced every year leaks from collection systems into the environment.
Further, plastic production, use, and disposal create about 1.8 billion tons of carbon emissions annually, contributing significantly to global warming.
Increasingly, the consumer health industry is under scrutiny as public pressure and regulatory requirements mount to improve transparency around plastic use and drive replacement, reduction, and reuse of plastic materials.
A particularly tricky problem facing the industry is making medicine blister packs sustainable.
Traditionally made from polyvinyl chloride (PVC), blister packs are hard to recycle due to their size and, because they contain chlorine, are potentially harmful to the environment if not disposed of correctly.
As discussed in the first three articles in this HBW Insight eBook, medicine and medical device packaging have so far been excluded from targets set by the European Union’s proposed Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation, currently in trilogue negotiations, which holds that all packaging should be recyclable by 2030.
It is looking like medicines will be exempt until at least 2035, at which point the European Commission may check whether alternative materials and recycling technologies have advanced to a point where the exemption should be reconsidered.
The prospect of eliminating plastics from medicine packaging entirely is a subject of intense debate within industry, and between manufacturers and their packaging suppliers.
On the one hand, industry is exploring alternatives, with Haleon, Bayer Consumer Health, and Sanofi Consumer Healthcare all backing PA Consulting’s Blister Pack Collective, which is looking at how to commercialize PulPac’s sustainable blister packs.
We spoke to PA Consulting’s Tony Perrotta in an episode of HBW Insight’s “Over the Counter” podcast — included herein — who predicted the Collective’s first dry molded fiber blister packs could reach the market in some form within the next two years. `
On the other hand, packaging suppliers such as Logoplaste are skeptical that industry will be able to part ways with plastics. The key is working out how to recycle them, the firm’s chief technology officer Paulo Correia insists.
Currently, the national recycling infrastructure is impeding progress, as existing programs are not equipped to support a circular economy in medical plastics.
To modernize these systems, companies may have to accept the “polluter pays” principle behind extended producer responsibility (EPR) schemes, which ask companies to cover waste management and recycling costs.
The proof is in the pudding, says Filipe Vieira de Castro of recycling giant Veolia Group. “The tangible impact of EPR is evident in the uptick of recycling rates in countries that have adopted such policies.”
When we think about packaging for medical products, safety and keeping the medicine effective are top priorities. However, not many materials check these boxes.
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