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.

I have a family alert now that no one is allowed to spend money in Boots without me and without recycling! 😄

I don’t think any of my family do spend in there, the DCs use Savers and Superdrug and DH just picks up anything he wants in the supermarket. I get in dilemmas, yes I want the points, but chances are I can get the same product cheaper elsewhere (Savers or Costco for bulk purchases).

I’ve been doing the Boots recycling scheme for a couple of years. Both the beauty and blister recycling.
Amazing how many products my 2 person household gets through which are eligible and would otherwise go into landfill.
I just collect a bag full until the next time I’m going to the participating store and also keep a list of basics to purchase looking when they’re on offer at boots. If I’m going to be using the items anyway and they’re on offer I’ll make sure to stock up purely to get the recycling points back on my card.
I think it’s a really useful scheme all be it a little faffy to log and deposit.
Sometimes I don’t even use or claim the points rewards just do a deposit in store if I’m near the shop anyway.
Its still worthwhile for the recycling aspect.
Doesn’t take long to soon get another bag of items together for the next time.

Also worth noting and I didn’t know at first that you can cash in and earn 600 advantage points (500 beauty plus 100 blister) in one purchase of over £10 spend. Just open and scan the two voucher codes at the till.

I used this for the first time today. I was a bit confused to start with but actually, in practice very straightforward and no checking of bottles etc when you deposit them.

Worth it to recycle but also added 500 points to my Boots card. Well worth it!

So do you have to make a purchase at same time? The points just don’t go into your account for future? Confused

You have to make a purchase the same day to claim the points but then they get added to your normal points total to be used whenever. Once you have activated the voucher it expires within 5 mins so do that at the till

So the steps are:

Add item to your account
Go to shop, scan QR code on deposit box and click on the app to select 5 items to deposit (doesn't have to be the exact ones, I just keep a bag of approved blister packs at home and take 5 when I go to boots)
Deposit items and click on the app
Voucher appears in the wallet of the app
Pick up purchases and go to till (over £5 for blisters, £10 for beauty)
Scan your items and Boots card
Open the wallet and activate the voucher
Scan it as a coupon on the till before paying
Points go on your card

I always put this in the recycling! It must be able to be separated out else surely they'd have to put all the recycling in landfill?

I have so many of these and haven’t taken them to be redeemed yet. The one time I did take them to Boots the other week they had a fire so I had to leave the shopping centre without having redeemed them.

This would be perfect for me to get some bits for SIL as she has a toddler. Nappies are expensive!

Please stop doing that. If you put items in the recycing that are not supposed to be there it does indeed have to go to landfill - not just the item or the contents of your bin, the entire load. And it can damage the machines.

Thank you!
I had read the faq a lot of times and failed to comprehend!! Annoyed I didn’t know about this scheme sooner oh well.

so really it’s - deposit 5 items AND spend £10 to get extra advantage card points?

my local boots has a recycling drop off (not for medicine) but it’s tiny and useless. I usually do click and collect there. Might wait to do this at a large store where they have stuff to buy

But then all the recycling I've ever done has made the whole truck load go into landfill?! That's awful. I thought they had special machines that sorted it.

Or maybe they are putting it all in landfill anyway? As how would they know if it had that in or not?

My DD brought home from uni two shopping bags of lotion/shampoo etc bottles to use this scheme - yet here they sit as she’s gone off to Columbia for a few weeks. So she better do it when se gets back!

@StripedPillowcase- has nailed it. I can’t be arsed!

You can't put in shampoo bottles etc that can go in normal recycling, you have to tick to confirm that, it's only things that can't such as toothpaste tubes, make-up packing etc.

You can't put anything in our household recycling except plastic bottles and tubs, paper, card, tins, glass. They publicise this widely and do say that putting the wrong things in can contaminate a lorry load.

I thought the pill things were plastic. And metal. But I won't do it again.

I'm sure they will have just picked them out at the sorting place, really what they don't want is messy stuff like greasy pizza boxes and half eaten yogurts.

Funnily enough, I’ve just taken more items to recycle this morning. Boots staff are great if you ask.
I’m now £10 in points ‘up’. I usually spend for my holiday toiletries and suntan cream.

More than that, I just hate waste, so this is perfect.

Yes it’s really good.

Yes, just don't try to do it if you are in a rush, it can take a while for the QR code to register depening on wifi/5G etc. Then you get to the till and find that the thing you thought was £5.20 reduces to £4.99 when you scan your Boots card and you have to grab something else to get over the limit again.

The problem with the blister packs is that the plastic and foil are fused together, so machines designed to drop material A into bin 1 and material B into bin 2 don't work. There's still a surprising amount of hand sorting at some facilities (which is why recycling needs to be washed, so workers aren't exposed to mouldy food residue), and they may be able to fish out incorrect items if they spot them. But if not, it needs a specialist machine to deal with it.

(My dad used to design the machines, so it's a particular interest of mine.)

The staff member helped me with the QR code, which wasn’t recognising the store. Solved by accessing Boots free Wi-Fi.

The Boots wifi never works on my phone, I always have to turn wifi off and use 4/5G.