It was only a matter of time before York's incredibly successful blister pack recycling, attracted the interest of a drug manufacturer. I was delighted to be approached by Scope, who make Hycosan and Hylo-forte eye drops, and are pushing ahead with their green agenda.
By doing away with single-dose units (those individual plastic dropper thingies), and switching to preservative-free bottles they have reduced their plastic big time. In fact in Yorkshire and the NE we used nearly 3 million single-dose units last year, so thanks to the phasing out of single-does units Scope have saved over 2.5 tonnes on plastic just in our small corner of the country. Big green clap!
Now for the juicy deets. Basically we are collaborating with Scope to run a small pilot recycling scheme for eye drop bottles, of any make. This the only trial of its kind in the UK currently!
These are our 6 sites across the Vale of York, and due to popular demand we've gone a little further out of the city centre whilst also having 2 more central locations. That's what I like to call casting the net-zero net widely!
...so if any of these sites are nearby, please pop in with your empty bottles. You don't need to be a registered patient there.
And as with the blister pack boxes, some streets and communities may decide to do a 'satellite' collection which can then be taken in bulk to one of the participating sites.
Please also leave feedback here or via the QR code next to each recycling box to show your appreciation for the scheme, and encourage the manufacturers to continue after the pilot has ended. Thanks!