What the EPA Has to Say About the Management of Hazardous Waste Pharmaceuticals
Hazardous waste is defined by the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) to be liquids, solids, gases or sludges. This blog will focus on the management of hazardous waste solids in the pharmaceutical industry. The EPA has a long-standing policy that non-prescription pharmaceuticals and other unsold retail items that have a reasonable expectation of being legitimately used/reused or reclaimed are not solid waste. This policy addresses the issues highlighted by a growing body of publicly available studies documenting the presence of pharmaceuticals in drinking and surface waters as well as their negative impacts to aquatic and riparian ecosystems.
