Inhalers shouldn’t be thrown in the bin. When inhalers end up in landfill, environment-harming residual gas from canisters is released into the atmosphere.
Please see below for a video on the importance of disposing of inhaler correctly:
Did you know that 73 million asthma inhalers are prescribed in the UK? And with over 5.4 million people in the UK who have asthma, it’s not surprising.
How often have you thrown an empty asthma inhaler in the bin without thinking about where it goes, and how many of us know that we can recycle our used asthma inhalers?
There is also a lot of waste from unused or expired inhalers, all of which can harm the environment if not disposed of correctly. Inhalers cannot be recycled or disposed of with household waste so patients should be encouraged to return them to pharmacies.
Inhaler recycling schemes are patchy. If there is no recycling scheme locally, it is still important for inhalers to be returned to pharmacies so they can be incinerated with medical waste rather than go to landfill. All pharmacies should offer this service. To find your nearest participating branch please click on the link below.
Unused medicines should always be returned to a pharmacy to dispose of safely.
Please take a look at the short video below to for more information the different types of devices available and how to use them.
To see a leaflet from Greener Practice explaining how to tell if your inhaler is empty, please click on the link below.
For more information from Greener Practice regarding inhalers and their disposal please click HERE.
