Still solid waste after all these years.

Hi,

I'm miffed that one of the most popular manufacturers of vitamins - actually the #1 doctor recommended vitamin brand, produces multivitamins that are pooped out. All garbage - a waste of money for the human body.  And, probably a strong reason those studies last year showed that multivitamins don't work. I also see unused, undissolved pills as a waste water issue.

OK, I hear it! "Come on - you are going off about little vitamins with all the other important issues facing the environment this Earth Day season?" Yes, and I'll proposed a better way after stating my case.  This is a prime example of one person generates very little waste, but taken together, we've got a problem - and, truly, a simple problem to solve.

If 40% of the Centrum vitamins sold are Silver, there's roughly 3/4 of a million Centrum Silver pills being pooped out per year. Or, 1.46  million pounds of solid waste between pills and bottles per year. That's a LOT of waste. Of just one sub-brand. If the under 50 tables are added, that's 4.9 million pounds of solid waste.

If you want to easily be sure your multivitamin will dissolve and will be bioavailable, please click here.
For 12 years, I've relayed information about how to choose a multivitamin. If you would like a more detailed explanation, you can contact me at Susan@butafullife.com.

If you are a health professional, I'll be glad to show you my full criteria and a link to a special health professional website so you might have better recommendations for those who entrust you with their health.

Thanks for reading,

Susan




Rough calculations - pounds of solid waster.
Wyeth's Centrum-TM Vitamin Unit sales were $171 million in 2009 according to CBS Money Watch.The going price of Centrum Silver is around $21 for a large size, 220 pills. My very rough estimates will be inadequate here, but it gives an idea of the problem.

Using 40% Centrum-TM Silver and 60% Regular (Under 50 years old) split, approximately $70 million sales for Silver, $100 million for Regular.
Silver @ $70 million is around 3.33 million bottles x 220 pills = 733 million pills, undissolved, going into waste.  Regular Centrum-TM: assuming around 7.6 million bottles sold, that's 1.5 billion pills down the toilet.

Note: I don't have an X-Ray to prove they don't dissolve, but I've personally testing Centrum-TM, Under 50, as one of the multitude of brands I've evaluated. The Centrum-TM brand failed the dissolution test.

If each bottle weighs about 7 oz (.44 pounds) (based on lowest shipping weights on various internet order websites) 3.33 million bottles is, rounded, 1.5 million pounds of waste.

The Under 50 Centrum-TM would very roughly be 7.7 million bottles, 1.5 billion pills, 3.4 million pounds of waste.