Living plastic free: Prescriptions

I needed a prescription filled. But prescription bottles are plastic and I’ve sworn off plastic for 2007.  

You’re probably thinking ‘Surely they’ll let you reuse your current pill bottle, and just slap a new label on it.’

Or will they?  

London Drugs said ‘No’...something about using a machine to dispense the prescription which automatically puts it in a bottle. I’ve been a loyal customer of their pharmacy for years. But hey, I’m willing to change allegiances for the good of Mother Earth.  

So I went to Shoppers Drug Mart, and asked ‘Will you reuse my old prescription bottle to fill my new prescription’. ShoppersGirl said ‘Sure’. Yipee – how progressive!  But, 20 minutes later when I picked up the prescription PharmaWoman had used a new plastic bottle and told me ‘We don’t re-use customer’s containers’.

Hmmm. A dilemma.  I had asked for my own bottle to be reused (my rules allow me to reuse any plastic I had in my life as of Dec 31, 2006). But they hadn’t. If I took the prescription, I was committing a SIN by accepting new plastic in my life. Would it count as a MAJOR SIN or a MINOR SIN? And….I knew if I refused the prescription they’d throw out the new bottle, which now had a label on it. Would that be their SIN, or mine? What’s an EnviroWoman to do?

I thought of my blog. Did I really want another addition to the plastic shrine picture in this month’s PROGRESS REPORT? (EnviroWoman has selfish moments). Then thoughts turned to ‘If I don’t accept the prescription, that’s the only way to make a point to Shoppers, that they need to be more eco-friendly’. So I said ‘Sorry, if I can’t reuse my own bottle, I don’t want the prescription at all’. I’m sure they threw it away. And I’m gonna count it as their SIN, because I would never have filled my prescription if they’d just got their story straight. But even so, Mom Nature I am so sorry for wasting all those pills which I know come from your precious resources.

Now, if there’s one thing I’ve learned in life…Try and try again.

So I went to another Shopper’s Drug Mart, Dunbar to be exact, and asked ‘Will you reuse my bottle’. And they too said ‘Sure’. So I queried them further…..’Are you sure you can reuse it?’ and the NicePharmaMan said ‘Yes, if you want to reduce your impact on Mother Nature, we’re gonna help’.  

Amazing Answer. YOU ROCK NicePhramaMan!!!! I hadn’t even told him I was living plastic-free in 2007. I didn’t even have EnviroWoman tattooed on my forehead or emblazoned on my clothes. I was totally incognito. And to be honest, I was also a bit shocked!

It gets even better….he showed me this huge recycling bag filled with a wide assortment of plastic bottles and medical stuff in all colors and sizes that they were collecting for recycling. And this plastic wasn’t just their in-pharmacy plastic – they actually accept old medications (non-liquid) from their customers. NicePharmaMan throws the pills into their hazardous waste recycling, and tosses the plastic pill bottles and stuff into the recycling bag. Now how impressive is that?

I said ‘You do realize you can’t recycle grade 3 and 6 plastic, don’t you?’. (Here’s where it gets really good…) They said ‘We do’.

It turns out one of the NicePharmaMen, has a side-line business, Pharm-Ecological that collects and recycles ALL grades of local pharmacy plastic. If it's plastic, they'll take it!

How cool is that? The concept is great. So EnviroWoman gives them an ‘A’ for effort.

Too bad they ship some of it all the way to China for processing (probably Grade 3 and 6 which aren’t accepted by our local blue box program).  But quite honestly, from what I’ve read, a lot of the plastic we recycle gets shipped to China for recycling with lousy consequences. But that's another blog entry.

I'm sure it's a hard pill to swallow, but London Drugs, you’ve lost a customer. Shoppers, you’ve won one. Well, at least Shoppers Drug Mart on Dunbar.

And kudos to ‘corporate’ Shoppers Drug Mart that allows its eco-conscious employees to express their inner-green.

...Now, if you’d just stock toilet paper that isn’t wrapped in plastic, I’d be putty in your hands.  

Lessons Learned:

• Persist! If you do, sooner or later the Powers That Be will accept the fact that ‘Hey, this Chick is serious’ and make the karmic forces work in amazing ways.
• There are green warriors everywhere. Maybe we really can wake up the world, shake up the world, and save the planet.