Pharmaceutical waste disposal practices: a case study of an Australian public hospital pharmacy department

IF 1 Q4 PHARMACOLOGY & PHARMACY

Journal of Pharmacy Practice and Research Pub Date : 2023-02-27 DOI:10.1002/jppr.1850

Judith A. Singleton B.Pharm, PhD, Esther T.-L. Lau B.Pharm (Hons), PhD, Lisa M. Nissen B.Pharm, PhD

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Abstract

Background

In Queensland, each hospital and health service (local hospital network) has its own waste reduction and recycling plan to comply with the Queensland Government's Waste Reduction and Recycling Act 2011 (Qld). The aim is to reduce both the hospital's carbon footprint and waste handling costs. Hospital environmental waste services staff do not audit pharmaceutical waste bins as this requires the presence of a registered pharmacist.

Aim

Since previous published studies of healthcare waste disposal practices have not included pharmacy waste bin audits, this study aimed to investigate waste disposal behaviours in a hospital pharmacy department.

Method

This sequential, two-phase mixed methods study was conducted in a metropolitan, tertiary public hospital's pharmacy department in Queensland. Phase I involved semi-structured interviews of hospital pharmacists and pharmacy technicians while Phase II comprised bin audits of the pharmacy department's waste streams.

Results

The bin audits revealed 36.1%, 23.8%, and 4.9% of recyclable waste in the clinical waste stream for each of the three bin audits respectively. In the general waste stream, the two bin audits of this stream revealed 14.3% and 44.4%, respectively. The reasons were identified in the interviews: there were no recycling bins in the main dispensing areas and there was confusion surrounding correct disposal of original containers and non-contaminated packaging waste. Non-paper waste was found in the confidential (shredded) waste stream in the two bin audits of this stream (10.1% and 16.7%, respectively).

Conclusion

Provision of commingled recycling bins and clean office paper waste bins in dispensing areas and education of staff on correct waste segregation processes will improve waste segregation in hospital pharmacy departments with both financial and environmental benefits for the hospital and the general population.

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医药废物处理实践：以澳大利亚公立医院药房为例

在昆士兰，每个医院和卫生服务机构（当地医院网络）都有自己的废物减少和回收计划，以符合昆士兰政府的《2011年废物减少和再生法案》（Qld）。其目的是减少医院的碳足迹和废物处理成本。医院环境废物服务人员不审核药品废物箱，因为这需要注册药剂师在场。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Journal of Pharmacy Practice and Research Health Professions-Pharmacy

CiteScore

1.60

自引率

9.50%

发文量

期刊介绍： The purpose of this document is to describe the structure, function and operations of the Journal of Pharmacy Practice and Research, the official journal of the Society of Hospital Pharmacists of Australia (SHPA). It is owned, published by and copyrighted to SHPA. However, the Journal is to some extent unique within SHPA in that it ‘…has complete editorial freedom in terms of content and is not under the direction of the Society or its Council in such matters…’. This statement, originally based on a Role Statement for the Editor-in-Chief 1993, is also based on the definition of ‘editorial independence’ from the World Association of Medical Editors and adopted by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors.