The pharmaceutical blister had been one of the most used packaging in pharmaceutical market, as well as impossible to recycle. This comes to an end, because at Rotor Print we developed a recyclable blister for pharma packaging with barrier properties.

At Rotor Print we are committed for the sustainability, and so, with the recyclability of the packaging. Our goal was to create a pharmaceutical blister ready to be recycled. Do you want to know more about our recyclable blister? download the brochure by clicking here.

Pharmaceutical blisters

The conventional blisters used on the pharmaceutical market are composed by a bottom foil of PVC or PVdC and a lidding foil of aluminium.

The packaging has to preserve the product, to ensure the best condition of it. That’s why it’s so important the barrier properties, to the oxygen and to the water vapour. On that case, where the packaging is composed by to different materials, the material with a lower barrier is the one that determines the packaging barrier. So, in this case, even the aluminium has barrier equal to 0, we need to focus on the PVC barrier. The conventional blister has some inconveniences, the impossibility to recycle it, and the toxicity of the PVC on it get burned

Improving the recyclability of the pharmaceutical blister

Historically the materials used were PVC and aluminium, but why we don’t change it? Our goal is to create a pharmaceutical blister able to be recycled, but without losing the properties of the conventional blisters.

To ensure the recyclability of the packaging we might understand the recycling plants process. Two elements to take into account are, the first, the composition might be mono material. The second one, better transparent packaging.

Matching properties of the conventional blisters

The main challenges of it are to keep the same barrier properties to preserve properly the product. Also find out a push-through system to ensure the same usability of the conventional blisters.

The result: recyclable blister

At Rotor Print we developed a 100% PET blister. We use a PET foil for the bottom and a PET foil for the lidding film. It is mono material and it’s not opaque, so fits the recycling plants requirements to be recycled. It has a push-through system that allows the user to extract the pill with the same facility as with the aluminium. And the barrier properties are the same as the conventional blisters.

Download the recyclable blister brochure here