Waste Management (Medication)

EC environmental legislation is constantly changing the way in which waste material is disposed of. Large fines and imprisonment can result if waste regulations are not complied with. It is therefore important that they are clearly understood. The information provided here is for England only. Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland may vary in their requirements.

Previous to the new regulations pharmacies supplying medication used to collect the returns. This arrangement is still possible for residential homes, however, pharmacies are no longer able to accept medication returns from dual registered or nursing homes. This is because waste from these establishments is classified as ‘industrial waste’ under the Controlled waste Regulations 1992. Waste may be collected by either waste collection companies, PCT (Primary Care Trust) organised waste collection services or pharmacies holding the appropriate licences for waste collection. Whichever service you use it is important to check that the service provider holds the correct licenses.

Processing and Sorting waste
You need only sort waste if your contractor requires it . If not then leave well alone. You are required to sort medicines under the Hazardous Waste regulations. A list of ‘hazardous substances’ is included below.

Your waste collector will provide you with a notice that must be signed by both parties. This will describe the waste being collected and will also give information on how to handle the waste. You should keep a record of this waste transfer for two years.

The Hazardous Waste Regulations 2005 came into force in July 2005 and replaced the Special waste Regulations 1996. Under the old regulations all prescription only medicines were classified as special waste but under the new legislation only cytotoxic and cytostatic medicines are automatically classified as hazardous waste (along with throw away cameras and fluorescent tubes!). Below is a list of some of these medicines. The regulations require that these medicines be separated out from non-hazardous waste. You should be supplied with a separate waste container for this purpose. Please note you are responsible for accurately notifying the carrier of what the hazardous waste is.

Controlled drugs should be denatured (made into a form that is unusable) before being disposed of . Denaturing kits for controlled drugs are available from pharmacies.

Most homes have by now a comprehensive list of Standard operating Procedures (SOP’s) . It is important that an SOP is in place for the disposal of patient medication.

Data Protection

You must comply with data protection legislation and confidentiality legislation. This means that no patient identifiable details should remain on medicines disposed of by the home, this would include information that could identify the patient such as name on the label. The same applies for any additional labels that may be supplied by pharmacies for MAR sheets.

Packaging re-cycling

As a nursing home you have no obligations to re-cycle packaging from medicines. You do not have to remove bottles, cartons etc. but the additional weight of these items should be included in the overall weight calculations.

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