What to do with expired medicines

They should never go in the household waste. Where the box and leaflet, pills, syringes, and tubes go.

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separate collection of expired drugs
The medications we store in our homes are 40 percent past their expiration date and can no longer be administered. This is a huge waste, affecting all types of medications, and it's even more damaging to the environment when, as we usually do periodically, we clean out our pill cabinets and throw away all expired packages. Where? Here too, the statistics are full of waste: According to data collected by the Association of People with Rheumatic Diseases (Apmar), only four out of ten citizens dispose of these products correctly, the others throw them in household waste., ignoring the explosive polluting potential of drugs. The active ingredients in drugs become toxic and can damage the subsoil, contaminate drinking water wells, and compromise the functioning of sewer purification systems.

Where do they throw away?

Yet the correct disposal of expired drugs, which avoids huge wasteIt's simple, and very quick. The premise is clear and should be etched into the minds of all users of any medicine: never throw them in household waste. Instead, here are the easy things to do.
  • Expired medicines must be placed in the appropriate containers These are generally available at pharmacies or, based on municipal regulations, at recycling centers. Simply ask your trusted pharmacist.
  • If you decide to dispose of a package of expired medicines at home, it is important to separate the blister from the paper boxThe same goes for the glass vial and the package insert. In this case, only the paper and cardboard packaging can and should be disposed of with the waste paper.
  • The blisters in plastic bags and metal Instead, they should be thrown away with plastic. If they are made of aluminum, they should go with the other metals.
  • The medicine sachets, only if they are completely empty can they go in the waste bin.
  • In case of liquid medicines, the entire glass container must be disposed of only in the appropriate container found at pharmacies.
  • Sphygmomanometers, syringes and other sharp or piercing medical devices such as razor blades, IV cannulas, disposable scalpels with protective cases, since they are not medicines, they must be disposed of according to specific rules.

Where do expired medicines end up?

Expired medicines disposed of correctly  they go through a controlled disposal cycle why are they classified as hazardous or potentially hazardous medical wasteContainers at pharmacies are emptied, all medications are removed, and collected by companies authorized to dispose of medical waste. At this point, the process is as follows:
  • They are sealed and transported safely, without being opened or selected on the spot.
  • They arrive in specific treatment plants for medical and pharmaceutical waste.
  • In these facilities expired drugs are destroyed safely, and are incinerated in high-temperature ovens (even more than 1.000 degrees), with advanced filtering systems to reduce emissions and hazardous residues. The remaining ash, rendered inert, is then placed in landfills dedicated to special waste.
  • Recycling of some components of expired drugs

In some plants, a process may take place before incineration. mechanical separation of uncontaminated materials:

  • glass of some bottles,
  • plastic bags o metal of packages not in contact with the drug.

But this recovery is very limited, because the priority when disposing of expired drugs is health safety; much of the material is therefore incinerated together.

The environmental risks of expired drugs

In a 2022 report on drug use in Italy, the Italian Medicines Agency (AIFA) calculated for the first time the environmental impact of some incorrectly disposed drugs, focusing the investigation on 90 active ingredients belonging to 28 therapeutic classes. The result is a wake-up call that we should heed when we throw away expired medicines: for half of these therapeutic classes, AIFA has identified at least one active ingredient with a high or moderate environmental risk.

When can expired medicines be used?

Several recent studies have unanimously demonstrated that expired drug tablets remain 80 to 100 percent stable for two years after expiration. However, if the medicines are injectable or liquid, such as syrups and eye drops, the expiration date must be strictly observed, as their effectiveness after expiration is likely to be virtually nonexistent. In any case, in addition to the expiration date, proper storage is also crucial for the safe use of a medicine. Thu trovate all the information on when and how expired medicines can be used.

What happens if you take expired medicines?

A drug's expiration date is set by the manufacturer and authorized by the AIFA, the Italian Medicines Agency, or the EMA, the European Medicines Agency. The choice of a date is based on studies that ensure the drug, within the period in which it can be used, is safe and effective. But what happens if you take... medicine Expired? Apart from the very limited cases in which it is possible to use an expired drug, on the expiry date, the substances that compose it medicines could undergo chemical changes, which could be toxic to the body or could trigger dangerous reactions allergic reactions. Furthermore, the quantity of the drug's active ingredients could decrease to the point of making it ineffective, and therefore simply a waste of our health and our wallet (if we paid for the medicine) or of the state's money (if the drug was entirely provided by the National Health Service).

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