Products

Pharmaceuticals and Product Stewardship

International Programs

Australia In July 1998, the Commonwealth Department of Health and Family Services budget provided funds to establish a system for the collection and destruction of unwanted and out-of-date medicines, known as the Return Unwanted Medicines (RUM) Project.

The unwanted pharmaceuticals are collected by community pharmacies. Each participating pharmacy is provided with a RUM Project approved container, with RUM Project approved liner and seal. The container is kept in a section of the pharmacy that may be visible to customers, but out of reach of the public. Pharmacists are required to record the substances as they are returned. Pharmacists are not paid for their collection services.

Full containers are then collected by the wholesaler serving a pharmacy and taken to the wholesaler depot where they must be stored in a quarantined area. The containers are then palletized for collection by the appointed waste disposal company. That company delivers the containers to an approved high temperature incinerator where the containers are opened and the contents decanted directly into the incinerator. Program publicity and consumer awareness campaigns are conducted by the RUM Project.

In 2008, RUM reported that an average in excess of 30 Tonnes of unwanted medicines are collected each month across Australia. Commonwealth funds currently cover the costs of collection and disposal, with support from the pharmaceutical industry. The Australian Federal Budget for July 2005 allocated over $6 million for a further four years to the project, with a funding review due in June 2009.

Canada Alberta Alberta has a formal province-wide program for the disposal of household pharmaceutical waste. The ENVIRx program allows consumers to return pharmaceuticals to the majority of the province’s community pharmacies for safe disposal. It is administrated by the Pharmacists Association of Alberta (RxA) and funded by the industry and the provincial government. The program has existed since 1988 in various forms. Industry participation and funding is voluntary. Learn more from Environment Canada and the Canadian Post Consumer Pharmaceutical Stewardship Association (PCPSA).

British Columbia
The British Columbia Medications Return Program collects unwanted and expired medications at pharmacies throughout the province. The pharmaceutical industry voluntarily started a pharmaceuticals stewardship program in 1996. The program has been regulated by the government since 1997 under the passage of the Post-Consumer Residual Stewardship Program regulation and the subsequent 2004 Recycling Regulation (BC Reg. 449/2004). The program is administered by the PCPSA and funded by the industry.

Consumers drop off medicines at approximately 889 participating community pharmacies, representing 92% (as of 2006) of all retail pharmacies in British Columbia. The pharmacies store returned pharmaceuticals in plastic containers, which are kept behind the pharmacy counter. Upon pick up, the containers are sent to a licensed incinerator located in Beiseker, Alberta for destruction. Learn more from the Ministry of the Environment and through presentations given at the NWPSC Tour of Product Stewardship Programs in BC.

Manitoba
The current collection method for household pharmaceuticals in Manitoba is administered and funded through the provincial government. However, Green Manitoba, an agency of the government of Manitoba, is working on developing a formal province-wide regulated stewardship program for the disposal of household hazardous materials (HHM). The HHM Stewardship program will require companies that produce or distribute designated products in Manitoba to be responsible for developing a program to collect and manage their waste products, including pharmaceuticals.

Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia has a formal province-wide program for the disposal of household pharmaceutical waste. The Medication Disposal program allows consumers to return pharmaceuticals to provincial community pharmacies for safe disposal. It is administrated by the Pharmacy Association of Nova Scotia (PANS) and paid by the industry. The program is not regulated.

Ontario
Since 1997, the City of Ottawa has offered the Take it Back! program to provide convenient options to properly dispose or recycle certain household waste products including medicines. The award-winning product stewardship program encourages local businesses to take back many of the household materials that they sell, and to ensure they are reused, recycled or disposed of properly. A detailed history about the Ottawa Take it Back! program is available from the GrassRoots Recycling Network.

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Portugal In 2001, in response to the EU packaging directive, the pharmaceutical industry established Valormed to implement and operate a collection program for packaging and unwanted medications. Valormed is funded through eco-fees paid by pharmaceutical companies for each package placed on the market. Consumers can return packaging and unwanted medicines to pharmacies throughout the country.

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Spain In order to meet the requirements of the European Union directive 94/62 on management of packaging and packaging waste, FARMAINDUSTRIA, representing the Spanish pharmaceutical industry, established a not-for-profit organization in 2002 called SIGRE. SIGRE stands for Sistema integrat de gestió i recollida d'envasos, which roughly translates in English to integrated packaging collection and management system.

SIGRE offers citizens a convenient and safe system to dispose of the packaging and remains of unused or out-of-date medicines. Packaging and unused medications can be returned at pharmacies throughout Spain at no cost. FARMAINDUSTRIA's 2006 Annual Report noted that in 2006 just 8% of the public surveyed reported that they threw their medications into the trash compared to 43% in 2001. The report also includes results of packaging collection and improvements in packaging recycling.

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European Union Several European Union countries have pharmaceutical takeback programs in place. These programs allow citizens to return their unwanted pharmaceuticals at local pharmacies.

The national systems are operated and funded in a number of different ways. More than half of the programs are funded by the pharmaceuticals industry or by retail pharmacies only. The rest are funded by municipal or national taxpayers. The operation of the takeback systems may be the responsibility of the retail pharmacies or that of public or private waste contractors.

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