[Pharmwaste] NERC Guidance Documents

Paul T. Dennison ptdenni at co.chisago.mn.us
Wed Sep 27 13:25:13 EDT 2006


This is great information! Thanx.

________________________________

From: pharmwaste-bounces at lists.dep.state.fl.us
[mailto:pharmwaste-bounces at lists.dep.state.fl.us] On Behalf Of Tenace,
Laurie
Sent: Wednesday, September 27, 2006 8:51 AM
To: pharmwaste at lists.dep.state.fl.us
Subject: [Pharmwaste] NERC Guidance Documents



These guidance documents are now available from NERC - Laurie

 

 

1. Managing Unwanted Medications - 2 Guidance Documents Now Available

Based on two years of research and eight pilot collections, NERC has
published the most comprehensive guidance for operating legal and safe
unwanted medication collections that is available.   

 

Two guidance documents have been published: one that is general and
addresses any type of unwanted medication collection, and the other is
specific to collections held in conjunction with household hazardous
waste events.

 

Operating Unwanted Medication Collections - A Legal & Safe Approach
[http://www.nerc.org/adobe/setting.up.draftFINAL.pdf], was researched
and written with funding from an EPA grant.  

 

Holding an Unwanted Medication Collection as Part of a Household
Hazardous Waste Event - A Legal & Safe Approach
[http://www.nerc.org/adobe/hhw.setting.upFINAL.pdf] was researched and
written with funding from a USDA-Rural Utilities Service grant. 

 

These documents carefully lay out the federal and state legal
requirements for operating an unwanted medication collection, as well as
providing in-depth information about planning and implementation such
events.  Data from the pilot collections is reported, including costs,
hours to plan and implement the collection events, and the amount of
material that was collected.

 

For more information, contact Lynn Rubinstein [lynn at nerc.org].

 

2. Cleaning Out Bulk Compounding Chemicals from Pharmacies - Guidance

Pharmacies may have stores of unwanted chemicals that were once used in
the on-site preparation of prescriptions.  Known as "bulk compounding
chemicals," these often include coal tar, phenol, and sulfur power. Most
pharmacies rarely, if ever, do on-site compounding of pharmaceuticals
anymore.

 

Bulk compounding chemicals are chemicals - not drugs.  Once determined
to be a waste rather than an inventory item, many of these are Resource
Conservation Recovery Act (RCRA) hazardous wastes.  Due to a lack of
familiarity with how to dispose of these chemicals, as well as the
difficulty and expense of disposing of small amounts of wastes (i.e.,
one or two gallons) on a one-time basis, pharmacies may store unwanted
bulk compounding chemicals in a cabinet for many years, uncertain of
what else to do.  

 

Providing the opportunity to appropriately remove and manage these
materials is a valuable service that household hazardous waste programs
can offer to businesses in their community. The goal is to divert bulk
compounding chemicals from the municipal solid waste stream by
establishing a cost effective and convenient system for disposal as a
hazardous waste. The strategy is to create partnerships between existing
household hazardous waste programs that accept materials from
conditionally exempt generators of hazardous waste.

 

Cleaning Out Bulk Compounding Chemicals from Pharmacies: Developing
Partnerships with Household Hazardous Waste Programs
[http://www.nerc.org/adobe/collecting_bulk_compounding_chemicalsFINAL.pd
f], is a new guidance document that details how to develop successful
partnerships between household hazardous waste collection programs and
pharmacies.  The guidance is the result of a pilot project that NERC
conducted, with funding from the EPA.  The project identified pharmacies
with unwanted bulk compounding chemicals and demonstrated that their
participation in local household hazardous waste collections is a
cost-effective and convenient method of disposing of these materials
responsibility.  This document does not address the disposal of unwanted
medications.  

 

For more information, contact Lynn Rubinstein [lynn at nerc.org].

 

 

 

Lynn Rubinstein, Executive Director
Northeast Recycling Council, Inc.
139 Main St., Suite 401
Brattleboro, VT  05301
lynn at nerc.org    www.nerc.org
802-254-3636/802-254-5870 fax

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