CVS Is Switching to Aluminum Pill Bottles

CVS 将改用铝制药瓶

CVS is changing up its over-the-counter pill bottles, swapping out the plastic for aluminum. CVS 正在对其非处方药瓶进行调整，将塑料材质更换为铝制。

For decades, pills have typically come packaged in hard plastic containers. While technically recyclable, these containers tend to be accepted in fewer places than the much more broadly recyclable aluminum. 几十年来，药片通常都采用硬塑料容器包装。虽然从技术上讲这些容器可以回收，但相比于回收范围更广的铝材，能接收塑料容器的回收点往往较少。

The retail pharmacy chain will soon start selling generic, CVS-brand versions of some allergy and pain-relief medications bottled up in aluminum. 这家连锁药店即将开始销售采用铝瓶包装的 CVS 自有品牌非处方过敏药和止痛药。

“For OTC medications, aluminum packaging offers several practical and sustainability benefits,” wrote Mike Wier, vice president of store brands at CVS, in an email to WIRED. “Like more traditional packaging options, aluminum provides a strong barrier to help maintain stability and shelf life.” “对于非处方药而言，铝制包装在实用性和可持续性方面具有多重优势，”CVS 自有品牌副总裁 Mike Wier 在给《连线》（WIRED）杂志的电子邮件中写道。“与传统的包装方案一样，铝材能提供强大的屏障，有助于保持药品的稳定性和保质期。”

The first aluminum offerings start with CVS’s value-size versions of allergy medications and general pain-relief products. These are the bigger containers of store-brand versions of medications with the same active ingredients as Allegra, Benadryl, Claritin, Zyrtec, Tylenol, and Advil. 首批铝瓶包装产品将从 CVS 大包装规格的过敏药和通用止痛药开始。这些大容量容器装的是 CVS 自有品牌药物，其有效成分与 Allegra、Benadryl、Claritin、Zyrtec、Tylenol 和 Advil 等知名品牌相同。

The new bottles are lighter than the plastic versions, but CVS has not responded to WIRED’s question about exactly how much they weigh. The pills inside will stay the same, even if they might make a little more noise bonking around now. CVS also says it is not increasing the prices of the bottles after the switch in materials. 新瓶子比塑料瓶更轻，但 CVS 并未回应《连线》关于其具体重量的询问。瓶内的药片保持不变，尽管它们在瓶中晃动时可能会发出更大的声响。CVS 还表示，更换材质后不会提高药瓶的售价。

The aluminum bottles will indeed be more recyclable, but Wier says people will still need to do the same things to properly recycle their aluminum bottles as their plastic ones, like removing the label and cap. (The caps on the aluminum bottles are the same caps on the plastic ones, and they don’t go in the same bin as the base of the bottle.) 铝瓶确实更易于回收，但 Wier 表示，消费者在回收铝瓶时仍需遵循与塑料瓶相同的处理步骤，例如撕掉标签并取下瓶盖。（铝瓶的瓶盖与塑料瓶的瓶盖相同，且不能与瓶身放入同一个回收箱中。）

Recyclability seems like an added bonus for CVS rather than the main goal of the retailer’s move to aluminum. The change comes as part of a brand refresh for CVS, a little over a year after the company downsized by shutting down 270 stores across the US. 对于 CVS 而言，可回收性似乎只是一个附加红利，而非此次转向铝制包装的主要目标。此次调整是 CVS 品牌重塑计划的一部分，此前一年多，该公司刚刚通过关闭全美 270 家门店进行了规模缩减。

In statements online, CVS says it is redesigning its branding to make finding medications easier. It’s also likely a move to help counter the perception people get when walking into a CVS and finding nearly everything in the store locked up in an effort to prevent shoplifting. CVS 在线上声明中表示，公司正在重新设计品牌形象，以便让消费者更容易找到所需药物。此举也可能旨在改善消费者的负面印象——此前人们走进 CVS 时，常会发现店内几乎所有商品都被锁在柜子里以防盗窃。

For now, the aluminum bottles are available only for select over-the-counter meds. CVS says it is waiting to see how its customers respond before expanding the aluminum bottles to more medications or using them for prescription orders. 目前，铝瓶包装仅适用于部分非处方药。CVS 表示，在将铝瓶推广到更多药物或用于处方药订单之前，公司将先观察消费者的反馈。