Recycle Unused Vitamins: Send to Impoverished Nations
Recycle Unused Vitamins: Send to Impoverished Nations
Q1: 1) Release of liability from manufacturers and retailers donating vitamins.
2) Establishing relationships with other agencies to help with logistics to get the vitamins to those in need.
3) Establishing relationships with non-profit healthcare agencies to monitor the pilot population.
Idea Description
I would like to start a non-profit that works directly with vitamin manufacturers and retailers to collect their unsold inventory and distribute it to people in need around the world.
All drugs and vitamins start to age or break down the day after they are manufactured. But most all products are safe to take up to 1 year after expiration date. Although there is a concern that the product may be less effective, quality vitamin manufacturers will beef up their vitamins slightly to cover the time period that this vitamin may be on their shelf or in your home. A quality manufacturer will be sure their vitamins are approximately at the listed strength on the label at time of expiration.
What will you do if you win $10,000 for this idea?
I would use the money to establish the non-profit organization and conduct a small pilot in order to establish the processes and logistics for collection and distribution. Of course, there would be some legal issues that would need to be put in place to ensure a release of liability by the manufacturers and retailers who donate the unused vitamins. I would also want to work with agencies such as Doctors Without Borders to monitor the pilot population to ensure that there is a benefit to the recipients.
Vote for it now.
Farmerbetsy: Thank you for your comment. Just a point of clarification --- we are talking vitamins only and not drugs such as contraceptives. The idea would be to provide those in need with the health benefits from having daily vitamins targeted to their need or the needs of their population. It's interesting that there may be some resentment but I would think that the benefit would outwiegh that resentment.
If inventory can actually get into the hands of people who need it -- if product is distributed appropriately and in a timely fashion-- if it is not appropriated and resold -- there are a lot of ifs when working in developing nations. Are the products likely to be appropriate to the local needs? Having worked internationally, I am also aware of perceptions -- how people perceive being sent expired products. I personally know a woman who conceived her child while taking expired birth control pills donated to Albania. There was a lot of local resentment towards first world countries sending expired products. While there's plenty of information that most drugs retain their efficacy for years after their sell-by date, that may not be widely known or understood in recipient nations.
ResidentBlobber2: Thank you for your comments and feedback. It is interesting that you had just discussed something similar in your Economics course. In any case, the thought is that the vitamins would be donated to the foreign communities in need, not resold. Secondly, US-based companies, and vitamin retailers, move vitamins off the shelf one month before the lot is set to expire. So, consumers in developed nations wouldn't see an increase in their cost but, in fact, costs may come down as retailers and manufacturers are freed of the overhead associated with the destruction of the expired (or soon to be expired) inventory.