Sustainable healthcare company Cabinet Health has launched its first national recycling programme to address the issue of pharmaceutical plastic waste in the US.

Under the country-wide pill bottle recycling programme, consumers can request a free recycling bag from the company and ship their empty and used plastic pill bottles to it. Consumers must remove their personal details from the packaging prior to shipping.

Once the shipment reaches Cabinet Health, the company will responsibly recycle the medicine bottles and package or will upcycle them into an 'evolving art sculpture', with the help of interdisciplinary artist Kellie Gillespie.

Gillespie will incorporate all the bottles received as part of this programme into her artwork.

To participate in this programme, people can register on the company’s website, https://cabinethealth.com/products/recycling, to receive a recycling bag featuring a prepaid shipping label.

Cabinet Health co-founder and president Russell Gong said: “Pharmaceutical plastic waste remains an environmental issue, and Cabinet Health is committed to not only raising awareness but to providing tangible solutions to address it.

“And this extends beyond our environment to human health, as we are eliminating eventual consumption of microplastics from our bodies.

“We are proud to partner with sculptural artist and mental health activist Kellie Gillespie to support her next piece of artwork that will live on well beyond the norm of a single-use plastic bottle.”

Through this initiative, the company intends to spread awareness of the current plastic waste crisis while also providing convenient and accessible opportunities for people to help minimise their respective plastic waste.

According to Cabinet Health, approximately 165 billion plastic pill bottles are discarded as waste annually and enter oceans, waterways and landfills, and merely 5% of the plastic waste created every year in the US is actually recycled.