Pencycle recycling scheme
How do I recycle my pre-filled Novo Nordisk pens?
PenCycling is a FREE & easy recycling scheme for pre-filled Novo Nordisk insulin pens. To recycle your pens collect a PenCycle return box from your nearest Boots pharmacy & follow these simple steps:
Step one:
Remove the needle from your empty pen & dispose of the needle carefully in a Sharps bin, do not put the needle in the return box.
Step two:
Place the empty pen into your return box. Your box can hold up to 12 empty insulin pens (without needles), so try to fill the box.
Step three:
When the box is full, either return it to a Boots pharmacy or post it to Novo Nordisk, in your FREE prescription returns box.
Always remember, before recycling your Novo Nordisk pens, to make sure your pen is empty & the needle has been removed.
Did you know, 23 million medical pens are incinerated or sent to landfill yearly? Recycle yours at Boots today!
Novo Nordisk pens have been specifically designed to ensure that very little material is wasted. By returning your used pens you can be certain that they are repurposed.
Returning your pens to your local Boots pharmacy only takes a few minutes, but will have an impact on reducing the amount of medical pens taken to landfill each year.
Working together with Novo Nordisk, we want to help find ways to reuse the materials in your pens & help end the unsustainable use of natural resources.
Want to find a participating pharmacy close to you?
You can drop off your PenCycle return box containing your empty pens at any participating pharmacy, across the UK.
Frequently asked questions
Novo Nordisk are a global healthcare company, founded in Denmark in 1923. Novo Nordisk UK's aim is to defeat diabetes, obesity, rare blood and hormone disorders, to improve the lives of millions of people in the UK. Today, Novo Nordisk supplies over half the world’s insulin.
Novo Nordisk is working alongisde a range of organisations to provide services in the UK healthcare sector to bring PenCycle to life.
Other medical devices, for example insulin vials, insulin pumps and pens from other companies, cannot currently be recycled as part of PenCycle. Only pre-filled Novo Nordisk pens can be returned to Novo Nordisk in the supplied, dedicated PenCycle return box, which you can pick up from a Boots pharmacy.
No, pens can only be recycled through the PenCycle initiative. PenCycle will use existing logistic routes to minimise the environmental impact. GP surgeries, secondary care clinics and hospital clinics are not currently part of these routes.
Every pre-filled Novo Nordisk pen returned through PenCycle will be recycled into useful new products, giving them new purpose. Novo Nordisk has already established this process in Denmark, showing a positive impact, in which repurposing these materials can have, for example:
- the plastic has gone into new furniture
- the glass has been repurposed into lamps
Usually, empty medical devices like your pen are sent to landfill or destroyed as hazardous waste through incineration. The plastic in your pen is not biodegradable, so it could lie in landfill for hundreds of years. Incineration uses a lot of energy, produces gases that are harmful to the environment, and also leaves some plastic waste behind. By PenCycling, you are making sure your pen is repurposed to create useful new products rather than going to waste.
Interested in other sustainable or recycling schemes at Boots?
There are plenty of ways to recycle at Boots, including recycling your empty beauty, health, wellness & dental products, from any brand, that can’t be recycled at home! Find out more about the Recycle at Boots scheme.
In terms of your eyewear recycling needs, you can recycle your plastic neutral contact lenses at Boots, as well as picking up a pair of recycled or recyclable glasses frames to help reduce your plastic consumption.
Furthermore, your empty medicine & vitamin blister packs can also be recycled at Boots, as we are working alongside MyGroup, to give blister pack materials a second life as furniture, playground equipment & much more!
