It's been a long time since updates. 

Sebastien and I were fortunate enough to be invited to an Environment forum from Boothby MP Louise Miller-Frost with Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek.

Whilst we weren't able to formally present the petition to her, Sebastien did get to ask Minister Plibersek a question regarding Blister Pack recycling.

This is what he asked her:

Hello Minister, my name is Sebastien and I am 10 years old.I see that medicine blister packs aren’t easy to recycle and I think this is a problem. My dad and I began a petition and 16,000 people also felt the same. My question to you is, what actions have or can you put in place to address this problem of hard to recycle items?

She did say that medical waste in particular was very high on her radar and that this is something she wanted to do more on. She did note that Pharmacycle have had more success in partnerships in delivering blister pack recycling and that there was open consultation on several areas of recycling that we should speak to. We have since done submissions on these areas. 

https://consult.dcceew.gov.au/recycled-content-traceability

https://consult.dcceew.gov.au/reform-of-packaging-regulation

Whilst we celebrate that there's more options for consumers to recycle their blister packs (You can now do so at Chemist Warehouse, National Pharmacies and Blooms the Chemist), we still want producer responsibility for packaging design that's easier for default recycling streams. 

We are formalising the process to submit the petition to our federal representatives. 

Until next time!

Jasper and Sebastien