Foil strips for medication.

I hate them travelsafar They can be very sharp.

I struggle getting the Paracetamol out of the silver strips!

Many of my meds are in foil strips and due to RA, especially in my hands, I struggle to open them.

One of my RA drugs comes in a plastic bottle with a speci8al grip to help arthritic hands. Some has actaully used their brain!

Sorry!

Special and actually! My hand slipped!

I struggle to get all my medication out of those damn strips 🤬

Yes, I've had little cuts from them and find them more difficult to use just lately.

Just the other day I thought bring back those small brown bottles. At least they could be recycled more easily.

Several places have stopped taking the empty strips for recycling now as they couldn't cope with the amount.

I struggle every day to remove my meds from the foil things. Why do they make it so difficult.....

And when you do manage to wrestle them from their little nest, they ricochet across the table, never to be seen again.

Might be a helpful tip……try breaking the silver side of where the tablet is with your finger nail and then push as per normal on the plastic side and it will come out easier, hope this helps, works for me.

Yes. Whenever I fill my dosette box I end up with at least one cut or more and have now started putting a plaster by the side of me in readiness. I thought it was me having arthritis in my fingers so find gett8ng tablets out of foil difficult but it looks as though many of us have the same problem.

I've seen an ad for a service that puts pills in pouches each containing a day's supply and posts them to you. It is a free service - your GP sends your prescriptions to them and they fulfil them and send them out to you. I don't know what it's called, but someone must use it and might be able to comment. I believe you have to have four or more pills on repeat to qualify.

Kateykrunch

Might be a helpful tip……try breaking the silver side of where the tablet is with your finger nail and then push as per normal on the plastic side and it will come out easier, hope this helps, works for me.

I think the foil is stronger than my finger nails!

Auntieflo

And when you do manage to wrestle them from their little nest, they ricochet across the table, never to be seen again.

I know where they are, they are under the range and inaccessible!

You have to get the magnifying glass out and go over every inch of floor - you may not see it with the naked eye but the visiting dog(s) is sure to sniff it out in seconds!

Doodledog

I've seen an ad for a service that puts pills in pouches each containing a day's supply and posts them to you. It is a free service - your GP sends your prescriptions to them and they fulfil them and send them out to you. I don't know what it's called, but someone must use it and might be able to comment. I believe you have to have four or more pills on repeat to qualify.

I found it!

ipill.co.uk

One of my medications has sticky paper on the back, instead of foil, so you can't dig it out with your fingernail - you have to push it through pill-side to tear the sticky paper on 't'other... which then sticks to your finger, sometimes with the pill attached so when you flick it in the bin, the pill goes in the bin with it <<<sigh>>>

I don't seem to have any trouble with the foil strips

Callistemon21

Yes, I've had little cuts from them and find them more difficult to use just lately.

Just the other day I thought bring back those small brown bottles. At least they could be recycled more easily.

Several places have stopped taking the empty strips for recycling now as they couldn't cope with the amount.

I didn’t realise that. I’ve been saving them to take to Superdrug. I used to dispense tablets into those little bottles. The patients used to return them to me and I would wash them out and reuse them.Not allowed now. Used to have a triangular shaped tray to measure the tablets and I loved it if I got the correct amount first time. It was a bit dangerous though eg warfarin would come in several colours and it was quite easy to take too many of the stronger ones by mistake.

Things seem very wasteful these days - it seems madness not to recycle old pill bottles. Similarly, my surgery will only accept urine samples in the tubular bottles designed for the purpose. I don't know if they are recycled in the lab, but they won't take old spice jars or the sort of thing people might have in the house as they used to (I used to use film cartridges when they were available!). Instead you have to buy one from the chemist or go to the surgery to ask for one.

Superdrug might but our chemists can't take any more as the recycling place they sent them to was overwhelmed.

I have had many cuts! Just Google pill popper and you'll see a device that pops the pills out of the blister pack.

I use a part of nail scissors to score round the foil or paper backing and find my tablets easy to get out that way. My hands tremble and find trying to push them out hard without the scoring. I like to be in control of my own tablets and as my dosage can change daily depending on my pain levels . I fill my pill dosage box up on a Saturday and take out the daily sleeve . It works for me.

Doodledog

Things seem very wasteful these days - it seems madness not to recycle old pill bottles. Similarly, my surgery will only accept urine samples in the tubular bottles designed for the purpose. I don't know if they are recycled in the lab, but they won't take old spice jars or the sort of thing people might have in the house as they used to (I used to use film cartridges when they were available!). Instead you have to buy one from the chemist or go to the surgery to ask for one.

Things seem very wasteful these days - it seems madness not to recycle old pill bottles.

Yep. So much is now recycled - why not those little bottles? I'm sure we have the technology to sterilise them. But the machines and equipment used in the manufacturing process are not going to be chucked out any time soon. I suspect it's actually cheaper to foil-wrap them, so those strips are here to stay.

... and now pharmacies are refusing to take them back for re-cycling because they're overwhelmed (an end result which anyone with a modicum of intelligence would've been able to envisage).

Those blister packs are made up of complex materials, some of which are difficult to recycle - and the re-cycling scheme is now overwhelmed! I wonder how long it will be before we are levied a charge on it...

Apparently, the recycled packs can be made into garden furniture!

I can't find anywhere local to take them so I am working my way to my first garden chair!