Dive Brief:
- San Francisco, CA brought forward legislation that would require drug manufacturers to become involved with a stewardship program to address pharmaceutical waste.
- The extended producer responsibility (EPR) bill would obligate companies to comply with the program, which includes the following measures: collection and disposal of drugs, taking care of all costs associated with the program, promotion of the plan, and disposal of waste at a permitted hazardous waste facility.
- The proposed bill serves to act as a permanent solution for disposal of prescriptions and over-the-counter medications.
Dive Insight:
The city is the first local government in the country to introduce a drug take-back ordinance. It is the third municipality to initiate pharmaceutical waste take-back legislation; other counties include Alameda County, CA and King County, WA.
Police in Pennsylvania take matters into their own hands by disposing of confiscated drugs at a solid waste facility in York County. Every six months, the chief tosses an average of 40 pounds of narcotics into the incinerator. A spokesperson for the plant said that the drugs were previously brought to landfills, which had the potential to yield “a negative environmental situation.”
But there’s good news on the horizon. A waste-to-energy (WTE) firm and a recycling company recently established a partnership to treat prescriptions and liquid medical waste at a facility using an MagneGas industrial recycler. The WTE firm estimates the liquid sterilization market has the potential to grow into a multi-billion dollar industry, possibly resulting in the installation of similar facilities in the near future.