Pharmacies

Reducing Waste
Reducing Pharmaceutical Waste from Patient Care Settings
Hospitals are reporting tenfold increases in costs for managing pharmaceutical waste. This fact sheet offers guidance on how to minimize the amount of unwanted or expired medication, including information on epinephrine, purchasing/inventory management and sample waste. Pharmaceuticals should not be disposed of down drains or toilets.

Managing Waste
Evaluating Pharmaceutical Wastes is a Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) fact sheet intended to help health care providers correctly identify waste pharmaceuticals that are hazardous.

Managing Pharmaceutical Waste: A 10-Step Blueprint for Health Care Facilities in the United States, an 108 page document, includes guidance on minimizing pharmaceutical waste.

Regulatory Consensus on Health Care Issues is an MPCA fact sheet on waste management methods and guidance on regulatory issues that pertain specifically to the health care industry. Specific classes of pharmaceutical and laboratory waste are outlines.

Household Pharmaceuticals
Pharmaceutical Waste: Disposing of Unwanted Medications provides guidance to patients on how to dispose of pharmaceutical waste from their homes.

Additional Resources
Hospitals for a Healthy Environment (H2E) Select "Pharmaceuticals" under the Advanced Library Search. H2E has information on how to reduce a variety of toxics in your facility. H2E was jointly founded by the American Hospitals Association, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the American Nurses Association and Health Care Without Harm to improve environmental performance in health care.

The Sustainable Hospitals Project offers information on selecting health care products that offer greater occupational safety and less environmental impact than some of the traditional products used.