Decision details

Moved by Councillor Worling, seconded by Councillor Kok –

It is resolved that:

(A)      Council note:

(i)         every year, hundreds of millions of medicinal blister packs (used for packaging pharmaceuticals) are either sent to landfill or incorrectly placed into kerbside recycling, contaminating other materials streams. As blister packs are made of different materials, including plastic and aluminium, they cannot be recycled through kerbside recycling;

(ii)        for blister packs to be recycled, they first need to be collected in sufficient volumes to warrant the use of specialised recycling technology;

(iii)      Pharmacycle is Australia’s first and only end to end recycling program for household and commercial medicinal blister pack waste. Using specialised recycling technology, located in Australia, Pharmacycle ensures that blister packs collected for recycling are actually recycled;

(iv)      in May 2024, the City introduced blister pack drop off at their Recycle It Saturday event at Alexandria Canal Depot. Residents dropped off 9,700 items equivalent to 14.6kg of materials (aluminium and plastics) for recycling;

(v)       in addition to dropping blister packs off at Recycle It Saturday, City of Sydney residents can currently recycle blister packs using the City’s doorstep recycling program or they can drop them off at the City’s Ultimo recycling pop-up;

(vi)      since 2023, St Vincents Hospital in Darlinghurst has diverted thousands of blister packs, used by the hospital’s Heart and Lung transplant recipients, from landfill. Heart and Lung Clinic patients bring in their used blister packs generally when attending an appointment; and

(vii)     St Vincents Hospital sees more than 40,000 in-patients per year. Their long-term goal for blister pack recycling is to open the drop-off option to the entire public hospital, and to all City of Sydney residents who wish to recycle blister packs; and

(B)      the Chief Executive Officer be requested to investigate how the City of Sydney could support the development and creation of a city-wide blister pack drop-off location at St Vincents Hospital, whether through Grants and Sponsorships, strategic partnerships or facilitating discussions with Pharmacycle and other key stakeholders.

Carried unanimously.

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