Green Vials Questions/Answers

1. What is the Green Vial Option?

The Green Vial Option is the possibility for patients that wish and can to choose highly reusable glass bottles for their medications to avoid creating plastic waste. These glass vials characteristics make them suitable and easy to be used in pharmacies. Both child-resistant and easy to open caps are available. The patients have to commit to a specific protocol that ensures the bottles are clean before bringing them to the pharmacy for a refill.

2. Are the Green Vials offered or sold to patients?

Green Vials are sold to patients. So far, no participant pharmacy has ever had any problem regarding the fact that they are not free. Patients understand it is much more expensive than plastic vials. 

3. Who cleans the Green Vials?

It is the patient that cleans the green vials. The patient agrees to follow a written and signed protocol (document given in the implementation).

4. Why Glass?

Glass is chemically stable (does not leak oestrogenic chemicals), easy to disinfect at home, 100% and infinitely recyclable. 

5. Can Glass Break?

Yes. It is quite resistant but remains breakable. Just like our clavulin bottles or the glass bottles in which we put our preparations. Also, most patients do have many items made of glass in their houses such as dishes.

6. Why two sets of vials?

The tablets being used are in the first set. The second set needs to be cleaned before the next refill so that old tablets and new ones never mix and tablets are always in vials even when the patient cleans his second set.

7. How about reusing the plastic vials?

I don't know the chemical stability and the risks of leakage of chemicals over the long run when reused. Do you have an official procedure for the disinfection of these plastic vials at home?

In my personal life, i try to avoid plastics around food in general. Most plastic leak oestrogenic like chemicals including those without BPA. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3222987/

8. Reusing vs Recycling?

Refuse, Reuse and Recycle. That's the proper order if we want a real reduction of our environmental impact. Less than 10% of the plastic generated is recycled.

Many scandals have shown how recyclable plastic is often buried instead of recycled. As a consumer, our real control is to choose reusable options and avoid generating avoidable waste. 

9. Is the Green Vial for all patients?

No. We will never impose it. For those who can't disinfect vials at home or for some types of medications (cytotoxics) we have the plastic vials as well. Our goal is a safe reduction in plastic waste.

10. Too futuristic?

We don't think so. When Procter and Gamble and Unilever start offering Bulk options, it means change is now almost mainstream. Let's not be late as pharmacists...

11. Why do i have to pay?

Establishing procedures and protocols, teaching them takes a lot of time and money. Our service includes advertising the initiative which costs a lot of money, Our goal is to serve a cause, help for safe implementation and ensure the visibility of your pharmacy.

Keep in mind that the advertising impact is superior to our usual flyer campaigns for a fraction of the price and economies will be generated from the saving from plastic bottles.

Please feel free to contact us for any other question :)

Sarah Fizazi