Sustainability Project: Inhaler Disposal

Problem

This project aimed to assess awareness of the environmental impact of inhalers and if this would influence people’schoice of disposal of inhalers. The gas propellant used in metered-dose inhalers is thousands of times morepowerful than carbon dioxide. When metered-dose inhalers are disposed of in general waste they end up inlandfill. Here the residual propellant can leak into the atmosphere. The build-up of this gas contributes toglobal warming.

Approach

We phoned 25 patients who are currently on inhalers for either asthma or COPD. Using a script that we created,we asked each patient the same set of questions and provided information about the environmental impact ofinhalers. We collected the results from this and then analysed the data.

Findings

The results indicate that 91.3% of patients currently dispose of their inhalers in the bin. With only 8.7% disposingby other methods. We found that 100% of patients were not aware of the impact that inhalers have on theenvironment before taking part in this study. After providing the patients with information, of the 91.3% ofpatients who currently dispose of their inhalers in the bin, 100% would now consider handing their inhalers backto the pharmacy for safe disposal.

Consequences

There is limited awareness in patients of the environmental impact of inhalers. Knowledge of the environmentalimpact has been shown to influence people’s disposal of their inhalers. Opportunistic implementation of thisknowledge to patients could be a small but effective step towards reducing the carbon footprint of inhalersprescribed within the NHS. Opportunities to give information on safe inhaler disposal could include patients’annual review appointments, with a text or on the left side of their prescription. Through this, the number ofinhalers being safely disposed of at the pharmacy should begin to increase.