why can’t they follow the lead of the insulin manufacturers?
Novo Nordisk alone manufactured 750 million insulin pens in 2021, made of more than 28 million pounds of plastic. The pens include a glass vial in a plastic frame, and are not designed to be disassembled into parts for the purpose of recycling. Nearly all are believed to end up in the household trash.
One of the engineering problems is that complex packages like these aren’t recyclable, unless they can be easily disassembled and separated into their components
Dr. Brandell, of Oregon City, has been trying to do something about the discarded devices. A biomedical engineer, he spent his career developing pacemakers, defibrillators and catheters. Semi-retired in 2021, he worked with a partner to design a hand-held gadget that neatly cuts the insulin pens so that they can be taken apart. It also works on the plastic dispensers for Ozempic, the diabetes drug that millions of people are now taking for weight loss.
