Skip to main content
Informational

If you are impacted by a current natural disaster:

Shipping of medications may be delayed in areas impacted by Hurricane Helene and other natural disasters. If you are impacted by a current natural disaster, there are resources to help keep you and your medication safe.

Read more here
Search

Sustainable packaging for medication home delivery

Optum has eliminated its use of polystyrene, or foam packaging, and adopted innovative, sustainable packaging in its home-delivery facilities. The new materials are used to deliver temperature-sensitive specialty and maintenance prescription medications to patients nationwide.

Art of a group of people doing their part to help the environment
Art of an open box marked R x with various prescription bottles inside

Designed with you in mind

Our eco-friendly medication packaging features:

A sustainable, cotton-lined cooler

  • Biodegradable
  • Reusable
  • Compostable
  • Recyclable

 

Eco-friendly drainable gel pack

  • Nitrogen-based gel that can be used as plant food
  • Safe to drain down sinks or toilets

Products made with polystyrene foam are bulky, non-biodegradable and difficult to dispose of

<1%

Less than 1% of all polystyrene is currently recycled.1

30%

Polystyrene materials fill up nearly 30% of all landfill space around the world.2

100%

Refrigerated medications are insulated with 100% renewable cotton and kept cool with sustainable ice packs. These materials are compostable and more easily recyclable.

Each year our new packaging is projected to save

  

""

3.8 million pounds of CO2

This is equivalent to the weight of almost 9 Boeing 747-400 jet airliners.

""

33.6 million gallons of water

This is enough savings to fill up 50
Olympic-sized swimming pools.

""

4.2 million kilowatt hours of energy

This is enough to power 398 average American households for an entire year.

""

2018

In 2018, Optum Rx became the first major pharmacy care services company to introduce fully sustainable temperature-sensitive medication packaging. Today, Optum Rx fills more than 4 million prescriptions each year.

The switch to sustainable packaging is part of broader efforts to reduce the environmental impact of health care

The parent of company Optum Rx, UnitedHealth Group, announced a commitment to net zero emissions by 2035.

""

Sources:

  1. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Advancing Sustainable Materials Management: 2018 Tables and Figures. EPA. Published December 2020.
  2. Colgate University. Styrofoam: Why It Is Harmful, and Alternatives. Published November 2011.

optum.com/optumrx

Optum Rx specializes in the delivery, clinical management and affordability of prescription medications and consumer health products. We are an Optum company, a leading provider of integrated health services. Learn more at optum.com/optumrx.

All Optum trademarks and logos are owned by Optum, Inc. All other brand or product names are trademarks or registered marks of their respective owners.

© 2023 Optum, Inc. All rights reserved.