How often do you throw out inhalers? And how do you dispose of them? I’ve never really given it much thought until I saw a sign outside a pharmacy recently saying ‘Inhaler Recycling’. It got me thinking because I just throw mine in the bin.
I’m a little bit disappointed in myself for not looking into this before. I am very conscious of all my other household waste and try to limit what goes into my bins, minimising packaging and recycling what I can.
My asthma has been playing up recently which has made me seek out all the available blue inhalers from bags, coat pockets etc. to ensure I always have one with me and there was quite a pile!
So I started looking into what do with them, as some of them were empty or almost empty.
Return used inhalers to the chemist
All used inhalers should be returned to a pharmacy to be disposed of safely.
They can be disposed of by the pharmacist with other drugs waste, this is then thermally treated to destroy the greenhouse gases. This environmentally safe disposal route is available at all pharmacies and is paid for by NHS England.
Alternatively it is possible to recycle Inhalers at those pharmacies participating in the GSK scheme.
For more information visit: https://www.recyclenow.com/what-to-do-with/inhalers-0
Look out soon for a blog about managing asthma and also how this affects topical steroid withdrawal, because preventative inhalers contain steroids…
I will leave you with the question. What do you do with your old, empty and expired inhalers? Is anyone creating artistic sculptures with theirs?
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