Recycling insulin pens

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Once over used disposable lantus pens, always seemed waste to throw them in bin, so switched over to reusable ones.
 
It's a start but saving an anticipated 2 tonnes of landfill with the scheme is such a tiny drop in the ocean!
I am sure the positive publicity they get from it is much greater than the cost of rolling out the scheme and take up is reliant on pharmacies which will have to set business space aside for the returns. Unless they incentivize it for the pharmacies I can see it being more of a burden on them but NN reap the ethical/publicity rewards. The returns are also shipped abroad for reprocessing so there is a carbon footprint there too. Maybe I am being a bit cynical. Would be nice if it also included cartridges so that I could participate but then it isn't being rolled out in my area. It almost creates a dilemma of might it be best to go back to disposable pens which are being recycled or stick with the waste from a reusable pen, which isn't.
 
@rebrascora i understand your frustrations but the article explains the 2 tonnes only refers to a trial which they hope to extend. The idea is for both pharmacies and people themselves to return the pens in packs of 12 pens so there is not much of a space problem.
Sendinb them back to Denmark is also concerning. It would be better if they were processed in the UK.
I hope they don’t experience the same problems as Nike who tried to recycle trainer soles into rubber flooring but, due to Brexit regulations, found it too expensive to ship to the Netherlands for processing so stopped the trial in the UK.
 
Why not use a Novopen with replaceable cartridges? The cartridges are made of glass with a bit of rubber inside. I chose this type of pen rather than the throw-away ones.
 
Well it’s a step at least. I suspect we may see more and more of these schemes from various companies.

Hopefully reusable pens will become the norm, and some of the excessive single-use paraphernalia can be avoided.

Though I do agree @rebrascora - focussing on the footprint of something so relatively minor with the potential for positive publicity might smack of greenwashing (again I think we’ll be hearing that term a LOT in the next few years).

However, I do think that all of these little acts, small changes, the seemingly too trivial things we can do, will actually add up and form a crucial part of the overall picture.

We can only control what we can, and try to make the best choices available to us. And millions of tiny eco-friendly decisions and choices will maybe make a difference?
 
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