The compostable pill bottle that could revolutionise healthcare packaging design
In the US, billions of plastic orange pill bottles are thrown away every year. Driven by the idea that it’s the small changes in our lives that can make the biggest difference, Saatchi & Saatchi Wellness set out to develop an alternative to this one-use product. The result? The Prescription Paper Pill Bottle – a 100% compostable box that makes taking medicine as good for the planet as it is for you.
Thanks to the work of a team including Scott Carlton (Creative Director), Kathy Delaney (CCO) and Jeremy Scharlack (Senior Designer), the packaging is free of any toxic dyes or glues, while remaining compliant with FDA regulations. With an open-source design of a single foldable sheet produced in partnership with global maker space Tikkun Olam Makers (TOM), the product is available to any pharmacy.
The project was awarded the Future Impact Pencil, and enrolled in the D&AD Impact Programme, in recognition of not only the success of the design, but the potential impact of the product as it continues to develop. We spoke to the team about how thinking outside the box created a greener pill bottle.
The Prescription Paper Pill Bottle, Saatchi & Saatchi Wellness
Solve a problem people didn’t know they had
The idea for the Prescription Paper Pill Bottle came to Carlton early one morning – too early, as he tells it. “I take a regular medication once a day, and I have a walk-in closet in my apartment in New York where I keep all the empty bottles. And one morning when I was not quite awake, I went to get my pill and I hit my elbow, and all the pills came falling down off the shelves.”
The idea, Carlton says, is so simple that people often can’t believe it doesn’t already exist. “I believe that's why this project resonated with so many, not only jurors, but individuals,” he says. “Because they identify with the idea of – what can I do with these bottles?”
Seek feedback from those you trust, but don’t be afraid to let the idea brew
When trialling a new idea, Carlton finds that feedback is key. “Kathy Delaney, who is the Chief Creative Officer at Saatchi & Saatchi Wellness, is my closest creative pal even though she's my boss, and she's someone I always turn to with ideas.” In fact, she was the first person he showed the design to, and it was her enthusiasm that gave him the confidence to take it to a wider audience. “Take it to people you respect,” he advises, “and they don't have to be high up, they could be any level, and just see what their initial response is.”
However, sharing isn’t always easy. “We live in a world of constant feedback,” Carlton notes, “and sometimes your inclination is to go, this is my baby, I don't want anyone to see it. Now, if you feel that way for a while, maybe you need to hold on to it.”
“I think those moments [of sharing] take inspiration and bravery, but if you do start to get good responses from others, and then you get brave enough and you show it to a wider group and they also give you a good response, that's a good sign that you might be onto something.”
Look past the obvious answer
The team tried numerous designs, but they couldn’t figure out a way to recreate the orange plastic pill bottle’s shape without compromise; it had to be able to fit FDA requirements, and they didn’t want to use plastic inserts to hold pieces together. Jeremy Scharlack, product designer says, “We were thinking of a bottle. It's got to be round.”
“We tried everything,” Carlton agrees, “We really tried to do the round cylinder bottles.” The breakthrough, Scharlack explains, came when they stepped outside of their preconceptions of what the product could look like. “We realised maybe it doesn't have to be a bottle. Maybe it doesn't have to be shaped exactly like a bottle. And that actually kind of unlocked it.”
Ironically, thinking outside the box led them to create the box – a foldable design that uses slits and flaps to create an FDA-compliant child lock, with a water-resistant beeswax coating and wood glue that makes the entire product 100% compostable.
Don’t be afraid to do something small
“I think that one of my challenges in life is, can I reduce just a little bit of plastic?” Carlton explains. “I don't have to do a lot, just a little.”
He’s far from alone, he says. “There is a large number of the public who are very interested in doing something small for the planet. Some of the efforts and the news out there is helpful and some of it's very confusing. We personally, as an organisation, do not feel that we should make people feel guilty or feel badly about their personal use. We felt that offering a solution, and a small way to give people something to start to answer some of their desires, was a better way to go.”
Don’t rest on your laurels
As part of D&AD’s Future Impact Programme, the team will receive mentorship to help launch and scale their product. They’re currently continuing to refine the design and consider new possibilities. “The big refinements are meeting the pharmacist’s requirements, making sure it's all tested in terms of things like FDA requirements.” Scharlack explains. “And then automation, you know, making sure that these can be produced at scale.”
There are also big plans for expansion, not only in the US but across the globe. “Our goal is to start to look at designs for how prescription pills are kept in the UK and in Europe and in Asia; the blister packs where pills pop out of aluminium encased in plastic,” Carlton says.
Overall, adapting a product that is seen as inherently disposable into something that protects the earth is just the first step for the team. As Kathy Delaney says, "This project is more than the innovation of the pill bottle in our medicine cabinets. It's also about accelerating the conversation on the greening of healthcare."