Surplus and Expired Medicines and Used Medicine Sharps
Surplus and expired medicines and used medicine-sharps can be very harmful if unsafely stored and/or disposed of at home. Community pharmacy plays an important role in helping people in our community minimize the risk of this harm, through:
counselling them, at the time of dispensing, about safe storage and disposal, and
accepting from people the return of waste medicines and used sharps for safe disposal.
The District Health Board supports community pharmacy by funding a medicines waste collection and disposal service which is free to pharmacy. This service is provided in Canterbury by Interwaste (contact details below) and on the West Coast by DHB staff.
Interwaste CHRISTCHURCH
Contact the manager of the Christchurch office to request waste collection and container re-supply by:
Phone: 03 348-9574
Fax 03 344-5005
Cell: 021957196
Email: cara@interwaste.co.nz
Interwaste also offer pharmacies other waste collection services such as secure document destruction, for a small cost.
Frequently-Asked Questions
How do we get paid for collecting returned medicines/sharps?
Helping people safely use medicines, including safely storing these at home and disposing of these when surplus or expired, is an integral part of pharmacists’ professional role associated with the dispensing of medicines, whether the dispensing is funded by the DHB or through the sale to the patient of ‘over-the-counter’ medicines.
Pharmacies can also earn additional income from the sale of specific sharps-safe containers to people wanting the convenience and security of these. Pharmacies can obtain these from wholesalers.
What does the collection service cover?
The collection service covers the following:
a. On-request supply of yellow bags for returned medicines waste and collection of filled bags.
b. On-request supply of 8 litre sharps-safe containers for people to decant used sharps from their own container, and collection of these once filled.
Sharps Bin
c. On-request collection of filled 1.4 litre sharps-safe containers which people have purchased from the pharmacy (or elsewhere).
d. On-request collection of suitable household containers returned filled with sharps, sealed and clearly labelled as containing used sharps. Household containers must be thick plastic, eg dish-washing powder bottles, not thin easily punctured containers, such as some milk bottles and coke bottles.
Containers must also be clean and securely closed, eg an ice cream container of sharps would not be acceptable. Do not accept glass containers as they present a challenge for the disposal process (autoclave by steam sterilization).
Pharmacies may choose what containers they will accept for the return of used sharps. Flyers are available from CCPG to aid pharmacy team members in discussing suitable containers with people. See below.
Some pharmacies have saved large empty tablet containers for re-use by customers for collecting sharps, eg Metformin, Flucloxacilin, Diltiazem containers.
What about Cytotoxic Sharps?
Cytotoxic sharps (eg methotrexate syringes) must be collected in a specific cytotoxic (purple) sharps container, also available from Interwaste.
What is not collected by the DHB-funded service?
Controlled drugs
Needle Exchange items
Other Interwaste services (eg document destruction)
For the above, use established standard procedures.
For further information please contact:
Mike James (Portfolio Manager, Pharmacy - CDHB)
Telephone: 03 364 4175
Mobile: 021 828 843
Email: Michael.James@cdhb.health.nz
or
Robyn Harris - Liaison Pharmacist CCPG
Mobile: 021 222 3320
Email: robyn.harris@ccpg.org.nz