VALORMED will bring the environmental awareness campaign EcoMED Action to six Portuguese shopping centers, between September 19 and October 25, with the aim of raising awareness about the importance of delivering medicines and their respective packaging that are out of use or past their expiration date at the collection points existing in participating pharmacies and para-pharmacies, as announced in a press release.
According to the same source, the initiative kicks off this Saturday, September 19, at Fórum Montijo, and aims to draw attention to a everyday issue: what to do with medicines that are no longer necessary or that have passed their expiration date.
Under the message “There are choices that leave a mark on the planet’s future,” the campaign uses an interactive experience to question visitors about the destination they usually give to these residues, presenting different options, such as ordinary trash, the toilet, or handing them in at a VALORMED collection point.
The campaign also includes the EcoMED Footprint Calculator, accessible via QR Code, which allows checking the environmental impact associated with different behaviours, as well as audiovisual contents about the journey of the waste after collection.
According to VALORMED, medicines and their out-of-use or expired packaging should not be placed in ordinary trash, at the recycling bins, or flushed down the toilet. The system ensures the collection of these residues and their routing to a Sorting Center, where they are separated and classified.
Paper, cardboard, plastic and glass are directed to recycling, while the remaining waste, including remnants of medicines, goes to incineration with energy recovery, according to information released by the entity.
“When a medicine is no longer needed or becomes expired, the decision about what to do with it also leaves a mark,” says Luís Figueiredo, chief executive of VALORMED. According to the official, the campaign aims to encourage a simple choice: to hand these residues to the collection points in the network.
After Fórum Montijo, the EcoMED Action will visit Centro Colombo, in Lisbon, on September 26 and 27; LeiriaShopping, on October 3 and 4; Alma Shopping, in Coimbra, on October 10 and 11; Nosso Shopping, in Vila Real, on October 17 and 18; and MAR Shopping Matosinhos, on October 24 and 25.
During the six weekends, VALORMED teams will be at the shopping centers to clarify doubts and distribute informational materials and reusable bags for transporting medicines and packaging to the collection points.
