Advil to reduce plastic in over 80 million bottles by 20%

In what’s being called a first for over-the-counter (OTC) medicines, Advil maker GSK Consumer Healthcare (GSK) has announced a plan to reduce the plastic in over 80 million Advil bottles by 20%, which the company says will result in a reduction of nearly 500,000 pounds of plastic in the environment.

GSK has already begun transitioning Advil’s bottles to 20% less plastic, the company said in a news release, and by 2022, Advil will have reduced the plastic in nearly all bottles available in stores and online, with the exception of the brand’s Easy Open bottles.

In the news release, GSK officials said the initiative will draw on a new barrier resin technology that reduces the amount of resin required to mold and craft the bottles, while maintaining the same barrier protection properties. “It allows for a 20% reduction in material usage for high-density polyethylene (HDPE) bottles that will never enter the environmental waste stream, without a reduction to critical performance characteristics of the bottle,” the news release said.

“With the new technology available to us, we saw this as an opportunity to invest in the future of our brands and sustainability goals,” said Sarah McDonald, GSK’s vice president of sustainability. “The initiative is a first in the over-the-counter (OTC) medicine category, and kicks off a series of plastic reduction initiatives across the GSK product portfolio.”