Pharmaceutical Environmental Stewardship
The primary reason your practice should manage their pharmaceutical waste properly is that regulations and laws dictate you must or suffer a penalty. While this is clearly a very good reason, there is also another equally important reason: environmental responsibility.
As research data is gathered on the adverse impacts of waste pharmaceuticals on human health and the environment, applying caution when disposing pharmaceuticals becomes increasingly necessary.
There is a national movement to prevent pharmaceuticals from reaching the groundwater. Should pharmaceuticals be mismanaged and disposed of with standard medical waste or flushed down the toilet, groundwater is where these chemicals will end up. There is not a landfill or a publicly owned treatment works (POTW) in the country that would knowingly accept pharmaceutical waste into their facility. Furthermore, there is not a standard medical waste autoclave treatment facility that can or should accept pharmaceutical waste. The autoclave treatment that most medical waste receives is not an approved treatment for pharmaceutical waste. Use of this process would end up with the chemicals reaching the groundwater. Pharmaceutical waste must be treated by incineration at the appropriate EPA approved facility.
BioServ will ensure that all your pharmaceutical waste is managed in accordance with the law and the environment. At the same time, we will help your facility institute a greener work practice.