Tuesday, April 23, 2024
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Thanks to collaboration between the pharmaceutical industry and citizens, medication and packaging recycling is a great success story in our country. With more than two decades of experience, SIGRE medication recycling points are a global circular economy benchmark.
Author: Javier Muñoz
The cooperation between pharmaceutical industry players such as companies, warehouses, and pharmacies, along with citizens’ increasing awareness, are the keys to the success of waste medication and packaging recycling at SIGRE medication recycling points. The name SIGRE is an acronym that comes from the Spanish “integrated management and collection system for pharmaceutical packaging.” These points are celebrating their 23rd anniversary and are managed by a partnership of 325 sector companies, 143 distribution warehouses, and 22,200 pharmacies, making them an “example to follow the world over.”
This synergy makes it possible to reach the two-fold objective of reducing the environmental impact of waste medication and packaging and minimizing the number of medicines stored in households. The main promoters of the initiative include FarmaIndustria (which represents laboratories), the General Council of Pharmaceutical Colleges, and the Federation of Distributors (Fedifar). This non-profit activity is supervised and overseen by the environmental authorities via the environmental departments of the different Autonomous Community and City governments, as well as by the Spanish Agency of Medicines and Medical Products (AEMPS), under the Spanish Ministry of Health.
In 2022 alone, pharmaceutical companies adopted 165 eco-design measures that improved the sustainability of 94.8 million medication containers sold in Spain. One of every three containers placed on the market incorporates environmental improvements such as reducing the weight, including recycled or biodegradable components, using bioplastics and monomaterials, or extending the use of recyclable blister packaging. In addition, in that same year these initiatives reduced the need for packaging materials by 1,700 tons. Likewise, according to sector data, each resident in Spain deposited an average of 104.4 grams of empty medication packaging or packaging with waste medication at SIGRE points in 2022, a 5% increase from the previous year, and 67.8% of the materials in this packaging were recycled. With these records, 86% of households recycle medication.
If we are unsure about what we can and can’t recycle in pharmacies, the published guide states the following:
- Yes, you can recycle: expired and unneeded medication, empty boxes and containers.
- You can’t recycle: needles, thermometers, gauze, COVID/flu tests, chemicals, X-rays, batteries, or masks.
The AEMPS recommends that we review our medicine cabinet on a regular basis (at least twice a year) to sort out any expired, finished, or unused medication.
Waste treatment after collection
The medication collected at SIGRE points is transported to the entity’s packaging and medicines waste treatment plant.
Subsequently, the manager sends recyclable materials from packaging to specialized recycling entities, while leftover medicines and packaging that cannot be recycled are sent to authorized managers for energy recovery or controlled disposal. The benefit of this recycling scheme lies in the fact that the materials collected (cardboard, plastic, metals, etc.) are used as raw materials to produce new packaging or other products.
SIGRE emphasizes that it works using a reverse logistics process, where the waste deposited at the points is collected when new medicines are delivered to pharmacies. This reduces the CO2 emissions generated to transport the waste and guarantees pharmaceutical control to prevent theft or illicit use. The initiative’s most important achievements include saving 197,000 trees, 402 million kilowatt-hours and 371 million liters of water.
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