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Haleon and Bayer Join New Blister Sustainability Initiative

The Blister Pack Collective aims to reduce single-use plastics in tablet packs in over-the-counter drugs, prescription drugs, nutraceuticals, and confectionary items.

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This month, global consumer health company Haleon joined the Blister Pack Collective as a brand owner founding member—days later it was announced that the Consumer Health division of Bayer also joined.

PA Consulting (PA) and PulPac, the Swedish R&D and IP company behind Dry Molded Fiber, launched the Blister Pack Collective in December 2022 with the aim of limiting the use of non-recyclable plastics in over-the-counter and prescription drug packaging through cross-industry collaboration. “The Blister Pack Collective brings together pharma, consumer health, and FMCG businesses to accelerate progress towards a world of more sustainable tablet packs, free from problem plastics like PVC,” says the Collective. “PA and PulPac have seeded the collective and developed the underlying technology needed to bring a functioning DMF tablet blister pack to life. The adoption of Dry Molded Fiber tablet packs provides an opportunity to cut back on the more than 100,000 tonnes [110,200 U.S. tons] of plastic medicine packaging used every year.”

The Dry Molded Fiber technology is reported to minimize CO2 emissions—leaving up to an 80% lower CO2 footprint than plastic and a 90% lower footprint than Wet Molded alternatives according to PulPac statements—and requires minimal water usage. Versatile tablet packs can be produced from the material, comparable to PVC packs in terms of physical design and tablet count. (Editor's note: Not all traditional blister packs are clear, but product visibility through transparent thermoform packaging has been a benefit to consumers in the use of some plastic blisters.) “As the name implies, the primary benefit of DMF vs. wet molding is that it is a dry process—so essentially zero water use in production and then no need for additional energy to drive water off,” explains Keith Thornley, commercial lead for DMF Collectives at PA Consulting. “That leads to 2 key benefits: 1) a better sustainability profile as water use drops, as does associated energy and 2) these drive down the per-unit costs making scale possible.”

As Alex James Orchard, head of R&D packaging at Haleon, says, “Haleon intends to take a lead role in creating a future for consumer health packaging which is more sustainable and easier to use by all of our consumers. So, we’re excited to see an initial piece of upstream joint development work kickstarted by Haleon with PA Consulting and PulPac expand and become more impactful through the creation of the Blister Pack Collective. Through this initiative, we’re looking to partner and collaborate with other brands across consumer health and other sectors to develop new packaging solutions using alternative materials which help drive circularity.”

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