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Does a Reusable Pharmacy Vial Make Sense?
New ANSI standards will guide the logistics challenges of collecting, washing, and redistributing primary packaging containers. Food and beverages are contenders, but pharmacies could benefit too.
3 Min Read
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At a Glance
- New ANSI standards aim to streamline logistics for reusable packaging, enhancing efficiency and reducing costs.
- Pharmacies could adopt reusable prescription vials, leveraging monthly refill habits for a sustainable system.
- Reuse differs from recycling: containers are washed and refilled until end-of-life, when recycling becomes crucial.
The PR3 Reusable Packaging System project, run by Resolve, is developing seven American National Standards Institute (ANSI) standards to guide stakeholders as they develop and scale up a system of logistics to collect, sort, wash, redistribute, and digitally track primary packaging containers. The standards will help align systems and infrastructure, creating interoperability, efficiencies, convenience, and cost savings.
Claudette Juska, PR3 technical director, says the program was initiated five years ago to address the problem of plastic packaging waste through reuse — a promising sustainability solution that has potential financial benefits as well.
“Converting from plastic to biodegradable plastic or converting to metal or glass can be more expensive, so it adds cost,” she says. “But at scale, reuse has the potential to reduce system costs for consumers and companies using it.”
Juska admits that the solution is challenging — an entire system of logistics is needed to collect, wash, and redistribute the containers — but that’s where the standards come into play: There are currently seven standards under development that will cover everything from how to wash the containers to how to label them so consumers recognize that they need to be returned.
Use, rinse, repeat.
Although plastic is the biggest offender when it comes to packaging waste, the standards also apply to glass or stainless steel containers.
So how does this reverse logistics chain work? The consumer buys the product at the store, consumes it, and then returns the empty container to the store of origin and places it in a collection bin. Often, the consumer pays a deposit on the container, which is refunded once it is returned. The containers are then collected from the store to be washed and returned for reuse.
While takeaway food and beverages and fast-moving consumer goods are primary contenders for the reusable packaging system standards (think sporting events where cups can be returned before spectators even leave the stadium), Juska says the standards could be used to create returnable packaging systems for products sold at pharmacies.
Reuse of prescription vials makes sense.
For the system to work, quick turnaround times are essential, which is why reuse of prescription vials or bottles could be a viable option for the pharmaceutical sector. However, Juska says she does not know if pharmaceutical bottles would require the same or additional levels of sanitation compared to food and beverage bottles.
“It could potentially be a perfect model for prescriptions that consumers are automatically filling every month,” she says. “They already have a relationship with the pharmacy, so to take back old bottles or vials when you pick up new ones makes a lot of sense.”
Pharmacies would place a deposit on the vials or bottles and collect them in bins once they are returned to the store. The logistics company would then pick them up, move them to a washing facility where they would be washed, and repackage them in new distribution bins for return to the pharmacy.
Jaska shares that return rates and the number of times a container can be reused vary depending on the product. But at the end of its lifecycle, the container should be recycled when feasible.
“One thing that gets conflated in the media is the difference between reuse and recycle,” she says. “People say reuse, and they mean everything including reuse. When we say reuse, we mean this is going to be washed and refilled. Recycling is still important after we reuse it.”
Of the seven reusable packaging system standards, the washing standard is the closest to completion and is currently out for its last round of public review. Jaska hopes that by the end of 2025, all of the standards will have the ANSI stamp of approval.
Add comments for the washing standard here by deadline December 2:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScKsO2KWjWoZoY3ZCvwKqMUPYQYR8XjIXzdpOMKhPlqYs8SUA/viewform
Add comments for the container design standard here by the deadline of December 9:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdyMfjUCPpS5onfifF3nzGhL28tSaIngkAt41dxdIqLo9N1-A/viewform
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