Has anyone used the Boots recycling scheme?

[Muchtoomuchtodo]

If so can I recycle tablet packets? The white plastic ones with foil on the back that the tablet is pushed through?

I can’t find them on the list but am sure they were on the poster that I saw in store.

I don’t visit a branch often so don’t want to start collecting them if they’re not part of the scheme.

There are 2 separate steps (and transactions) being talked about.

Step 1 - deposit items, obtain voucher, spend £10 to get points. These things all have to be done on the same day.

Step 2 - spend the points. The points obtained by using your voucher in step 1 go into your general Boots account, and can be spent at any time.

Do the blister packs take ages to be approved? It’s taking days. The beauty is instantaneous approval most of the time.

Not usually, same day or next day

I logged three blister packs at the weekend, two went through almost instantaneously, the other took 3 days, possibly because I guessed the brand as it was impossible to read. I guess the AI flags them sometimes

I’ve never been asked for the brand, mine have all been prescription though.

Ours are a mixture this was a non prescription one

I find you don't get asked for the brand if it's prescription, but you do for non-prescription blister packs. I've had one awaiting approval for 3 days now. They're usually approved instantly, but this one is vitabiotics vitamins which I haven't scanned before.

Yes its tempting to just put them all through as prescription and cut out a step

Ah the ones that were taking ages have been rejected. The photos have to be of the blister packs foil side up.

So I had a go for the first time today. Was a bit of a faff as the beauty drop off point was in a different place to the blister pack one.

There wasn’t good enough phone reception for it to work at either locations so I tried several times before managing to find some WiFi. Then it worked quite well.

I left a load of blister packs in that one as I’m never going to visit weekly to get rid of our backlog, but I’ll try to do it fairly regularly now that I know what’s what.

I’ve got over fifty items but if you can only drop off five a day it will take some time

You can drop off as many as you like but only get one bonus set of points per day and limits on how many times per month

I’d say this is an accurate description. 😂

I don't bother with the app, as I only occasionally buy things from Boots, and I'm not good at time-critical points spending. But it's good to be able to recycle blister packs. I get through a fair number. I just chuck 'em in.

I dragged a load of cosmetics down today and realised you can only deposit 5 a day. I don’t understand this at all. I don’t mind spending another £10 to get the points as I bulk buy in boots anyway as its loyalty thing is the best return.

actually it annoys me much more that no branches in my town have parking. I used to work half a mile away from a retail park boots And it was bliss. I probably bought 90% of my DDs nappies there and all the other gear too I was so loyal!

@JamfirstestI posted this earlier upthread, just dump everything in the bins but don’t mark them as deposited, then you’re not carrying them round with you they’re just approved and ready in your app, then whenever you’re in Boots ready to buy something just mark them as deposited and get your voucher. They don’t actually audit so far as I can tell, I’ve been doing it like that for years.

Don't you have to scan the QR code on the bin, though? So you may not need to actually make the deposit at the time you mark it and claim your voucher, but you do have to be in one of the branches that runs the scheme rather than a random Boots.

Yes you’re correct . I have so many ‘ banked ‘ I just randomly select 5 from the list at any point and deposit them , don’t check off the actual matching items , but you do need to be in the store and scan QR, but then again you have to buy things from the store to scan the voucher so obviously you’d be there anyway .

Thanks, yes - simplifies it a bit. But not that much for those of us who have to make a special.trip to the right branch.

I have successfully managed to claim my first blister pack and beauty recycling points. I found it a bit of a faff.

those that deposit whenever and then submit only when you spend - could you write a dummies guide please? I keep confusing myself.

I deposit mine as soon as I have them and put them in two ziplock bags (one beauty one blister), then when I'm going to Boots I pick up either bag provided it has at least 5 items in and take it with me. Bring home any spare.

I’ve just recycled today. I only put them in the bins when I’m going to use my voucher straight away.

1. Add items on the app when they are empty.
2. When you have at least 5 of one or both, and have things you need from Boots, go to a participating store, select 'deposit' via the app, get your voucher(s) and spend it/them.
3. If you don't go to a participating store very often, and/or you don't buy that much from Boots, whenever you do go to a store with the deposit bins, you can take the whole bag of items and drop them in. BUT, don't log them as redeemed on the app until you are buying things worth £5 or £10, so you can earn a voucher. You may have put the physical items in a bin in store weeks ago, but now you select them as deposited on the app, and get the voucher. You have to scan the qr code on the deposit bin to do this but no-one checks that you actually deposit the items at the same time.

@StripedPillowcase - I tried putting an oestrogel pump through and it was rejected as medical. Had put it down as feminine gel.
any tricks to getting it accepted?

Same here. I wonder if they've got wise to it?