Ask Walgreens to begin a recycling program for their prescription bottles!

Walgreens is one of the country's major suppliers of prescription medication in the US, with 8230 stores in 50 states, 2014 sales over $76 billion and profit exceeding $21,000,000,000.

Walgreens website reports: "Walgreens filled 856 million prescriptions in fiscal 2014.".

If the average prescription was delivered in an 11 gram, standard sized Walgreens prescription bottle, then:

• Walgreens added 20,758,726 pounds of prescription bottles to our environment in 2014 alone, while offering no method for reusing or recycling it.

Prescription bottles are made from #5 recyclable plastic. However, research indicates that only 1/3 of American communities are equipped to recycle this plastic.

Walgreens claims to be committed to Social Responsibility and Environmental Sustainability, on their website they state:

• "Our company's earliest leaders left us powerful legacies, and they're part of how we've done business from the beginning. We live those values every day, as we try to reflect the vision of Charles R. Walgreen by doing what is fair and beneficial to others."

Tell the Walgreens (and the newly forming Walgreens Boots Alliance) Board of Directors to do their part to reduce the #5 plastic that ends up in the environment.

Tell them to follow the lead of Whole Foods and expand their existing recycling programs to include a pill bottle recycling station in every store.

Consumer Reports states:

• "Many local municipalities with curbside pickup programs sort their recyclables with a screening device called a trommel, which has small holes used to remove unwanted debris. Bottles, cans and containers as large as water bottles remain in the trommel for proper recycling, while broken glass, rocks and other items fall through the holes and are sent to the landfill. 'Small bottles have a nasty habit of looking like broken glass and scraps to a trommel,' Cornell says. 'For this reason, recycling pill vials in a curbside program shouldn't be done unless you can find out if your system can handle the small size.'"

ScienceMag.org reports:

• "Humans produce almost 300 million tons of plastic each year. Most of this ends up in landfills or waste pits, but a 1970s National Academy of Sciences study estimated that 0.1% of all plastic washes into the oceans from land, carried by rivers, floods, or storms, or dumped by maritime vessels.". This plastic is disappearing and may be eaten by fish and end up in our food supply.

Contact Walgreens and ask them to start a prescription bottle recycling program.

Walgreens Corporate
200 Wilmot Road
Deerfield, IL 60015
(847)914-2500

Board of directors
As of November 2014:[38]

James Skinner, Chairman, Retired Vice Chairman and CEO, McDonald's
Gregory Wasson, President and CEO (stepped down Dec 2014)
Janice M. Babiak, Retired Managing Partner, Ernst & Young
David Brailer, Chairman, Health Evolution Partners
Steven A. Davis, Chairman and CEO, Bob Evans Farms Inc.
William C. Foote, Retired Chairman and CEO, USG Corporation
Mark Frissora, Chairman and CEO, Hertz Global Holdings Inc
Ginger L. Graham, President and CEO, Two Trees Consulting
Alan G. McNally, Retired Chairman and CEO, Harris Financial Corporation
Dominic Murphy, Partner, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts
Stefano Pessina, Executive Chairman, Alliance Boots
Barry Rosenstein, Managing Partner, JANA Partners LLC
Nancy M. Schlichting, CEO, Henry Ford Health System
Alejandro Silva, Chairman and CEO, Evans Food Group, Inc.

Links:
https://www.stock-analysis-on.net/NASDAQ/Company/Walgreens-Boots-Alliance-Inc/Ratios/Profitability
http://news.walgreens.com/fact-sheets/frequently-asked-questions.htm
http://www.earth911.com/eco-tech/the-ultimate-plastic-breakdown/
http://www.walgreens.com/topic/sr/social_responsibility_home.jsp
http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/news/2012/08/can-i-recycle-my-medication-bottles/index.htm