Time to dump the plastic?

[Blue]

Is it time to get the manufacturers to reinstate the old glass vials and get away from the disposable pens? I use the Solastar pens and it always annoys me that I can't just fit another vial rather than chuck the whole thing away. I realise manufacturers are in it for the money but surely the NHS would have some pull especially if backed by Diabetes UK.
Also the amount of plastic that has to be chucked each time a new Free style Libre is used has to be totally unnecessary. I'm sure if they really had a mind to decrease their use of plastics it could be done.

 

[Robin]

Is it time to get the manufacturers to reinstate the old glass vials and get away from the disposable pens? I use the Solastar pens and it always annoys me that I can't just fit another vial rather than chuck the whole thing away. I realise manufacturers are in it for the money but surely the NHS would have some pull especially if backed by Diabetes UK.
Also the amount of plastic that has to be chucked each time a new Free style Libre is used has to be totally unnecessary. I'm sure if they really had a mind to decrease their use of plastics it could be done.

Did you know that there are reusable pens for Lantus where you just change the glass cartridge over when it’s empty? You don’t have to accept the disposable Solostar. OK, the reusable one is still plastic, but when I was on Lantus, the pen had lasted about 8 years, and was still going strong when I switched to Levemir.(my Levemir pen is also reusable and is mainly metal).
I agree about the Libre, though, there does seem an awful lot of waste plastic.

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

I only ever used reusable pens and cartridges as @Robin suggests.

Since being on a pump, I have been using glass vials (and though there is quite a lot of disposable guff involved in set changes, I have chosen to use reusable inserters rather than ‘self serter’ type infusion sets).

I also agree that Libre produces a lot of hard plastic waste (which is largely unrecyclable), but I’ve heard direct from Abbott that a significant amount of research time and investment was spent on trying to make the insertion as foolproof and reliable as possible (and still it goes wrong sometimes for some people!)