I wish we'd go back to glass for a lot of products. But, you know, idiots might hurt themselves or something, so we can't have THAT!
Posted on 04/22/2022 6:53:48 AM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
Put together two environmentally conscious professionals — a product designer and a pharmacist by trade — and you wind up with biodegradable prescription bottles that are getting traction with consumers.
Health sciences startup Parcel Health Inc. of Bellevue has been piloting biodegradable pill bottles at 10 drug stores in eight states, including Pennsylvania, replacing the ubiquitous dark orange plastic bottles used by pharmacists to dispense drugs for decades. Consumer reaction at a West View drug store where they have been introduced has been positive, said Kyle McCormick, founder of Blueberry Pharmacy.
“Patients love it,” Mr. McCormick said. “It’s a pretty cool little box, very slick.”
Parcel Health is an Innovation Works portfolio startup company with offices at IW’s AlphaLab Health’s center at Allegheny General Hospital’s Suburban Campus. The company, whose product is called Phill Box and is made of a paper product with clay coating, was founded by pharmacist Melinda Lee, 29, and Mallory Barrett, 25, a product designer.
The company moved to Pittsburgh and the AlphaLab space in 2021, coinciding with a job-related move of Ms. Lee’s husband, John DiMeglio, who is a research chemist.
Ms. Lee said her company is aiming for a slice of the $33 billion global market for dark-colored prescription containers. Long term, the company hopes to tap the packaging market for over-the-counter drugs as well, she said.
(Excerpt) Read more at post-gazette.com ...
Ping.
If you live in a very humid area, wo/ AC to dry out the house, the bottle and pills might become a lump and inseparable.
Well, I guess my town’s out (Pensacola). Very humid down here in the summertime. I run the AC at a lower temperature than I would prefer in order to keep the house from becoming mold central.
These people don’t realize how puny and microscopic we are in this world. All of these actions to be earth friendly are just plain ignorant. What would be a better idea would be to put the pills in a container that you could use for something else when you’re finished.
And another erf day article.
Don’t people put the plastic ones in recycling to be shipped around the world to some country and burned ? LOL
I lived and worked in Miami for 4yrs, back in the early 70s, and it almost intolerable in the Summer. Moving down from Niagara Falls, I just wasn’t used to that level of heat/humidity.
Air conditioners are air dryers. So you may be contributing to mold and mildew by running it less.
Would have been informative to have a photo or two! maybe the paper used up their “film” budget.
BINGO!
I wish we'd go back to glass for a lot of products. But, you know, idiots might hurt themselves or something, so we can't have THAT!
” What would be a better idea would be to put the pills in a container that you could use for something else when you’re finished.”
Or a container that could be returned and reused.
Give them a break. They have been thinking real hard to come up with something better than putting a brick in your toilet to save water since the first Earth Day.
I cannot find information on the polymer used to make the packaging. How it performs depends on the degradation mechanism.
If it goes away by hydrolysis it may have a more limited half life because water vapor is everywhere. My thought is it may be a thermoplastic cellulose such as ethylcellulose.
Thermoplastic cellulosics can be moldable and require the action of bacterial or fungal enzymes to break the polymer down. This would happen in a landfill but not sitting on a shelf.
The only problem I can see is we live in a “landfill economy” where everything from packaging to houses eventually winds up in the landfill. Managers in this country may not see a need for biodegradable items because it’s going to be taken away to some unseen site anyhow. Especially if it costs even a fraction of a cent more.
Places such as Europe, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan make the vendor pay for disposal costs; therefore they look for reusable or biodegradable materials. They can’t just throw everything in a hole and move on. Their land is too valuable.
Federal regulations require "child-proof" container and lid. If the container has to include a mechanism that requires specific force and manipulation to remove the lid the container has to be really tough.
And it has to endure years of sitting in a drawer or bathroom cabinet where the humidity is higher than any other room in a house.
No, they put them in recycling so the recycling truck can take them to the dump.
That’s why I’m running it at 75 instead of 78.
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