[Pharmwaste] weight of packaging vs weight of pills at collection events

Wed Jun 1 18:03:56 EDT 2011

Pages 4 and 5 of this document have the results of the sort we did at one of the county collection sites. They had 5, 55 gallon drums collected over a 3 month period that we dumped out and took apart. There were some things, like powder and aerosol inhalers, that we didn’t take apart because of exposure concerns. We estimated the amounts of liquids and gels/creams vs. packaging weight based on eyeballing the remaining contents and subtracting that from the total weight instead of dumping or squeezing them out. I think it was done well enough to give a good idea of percentages of packaging vs. pills/liquids/gels.

From: pharmwaste-bounces at lists.dep.state.fl.us [mailto:pharmwaste-bounces at lists.dep.state.fl.us] On Behalf Of Matthew C. Mireles
Sent: Tuesday, May 31, 2011 2:31 PM
To: Marti Martz; pharmwaste at lists.dep.state.fl.us
Cc: djlefeber at comofcom.com; Elizabeth A. Smith PhD; Cheenu
Subject: Re: [Pharmwaste] weight of packaging vs weight of pills at collection events

Marti,

Solid medicines are administered orally as powders, pills, cachets, capsules or tablets.  These are technical classification of the form in which medicine is produced and marketed. Tablets and capsules currently account for more than 2/3 of total number and cost of solid medicines produced globally. Tablet is defined as a compressed solid dosage form containing medicaments with or without diluents. It's easier to mass produce, package and distribute tablets and capsules.  Many peoplegroup them boardly into "pills".  When we refer to "pills" in the National Unused and Expired Medicines Registry, we include tablets, capsules and pills.  From various sampling, we don't get much powders or pills, except products categorized as CAM: alternative and complementary medicines (herbals, teas, extracts, etc.).  Yes, people are returning supplements and CAM along with their unwanted meds and some illicit "recreational" drugs.

Tablets come in various shape, size and weight, depending on the actual amount of medicinal substances and the intended mode of administration. Tablet is the most popular dosage form and accounts for about 70% of the total solid medicines dispensed in US and abroad.

For our data analysis, we followed the consensus of the MBSG steering committee to collect at minimum 5 essential variables (name of drug, strength, quantity returned, reason for return, zip code).  For reliability, only the quantity return for solid medicines (pills, tablets and capsules) was selected for quantitative analysis.  We estimate the proportion of wasted medicine by the quantity and extrapolated standard packsize (what we expect the original quantity of medicine should be on an average based on drug name and strength; reference Red Book).  We performed a small closed population study to compare our "guessing" with the actual prescription quantity on the label.  The correlation was 0.96.  We continue to study our extrapolation method to further validate our protocol.

As you can see, we don't particularly get involved with weight of medicine so much as others who directly deal with collection, handling, disposal and destruction of the drugs.  Weight or volume are used to price the cost of shipment and incineration. However, we have been asked occasionally to give an estimate of the collected medicines in the Registry.  For this, we use a standard weight reference from an international health group that declared 300mg as the "average" weight of a "pill", based on the common aspirin.  Subtracting this calculated total weight for "pills" from the total weight of the entire sample of packages with the pills would provide a crude weight for packaging materials.  To answer your answer regarding a "consensus", the answer is "no".

A good contact for this discussion is the Green Pharmacy folks in CA.  I just reviewed a paper by Joel Kreisberg and Ilene Ruhoy that describes a pilot drug collection program in the Bay Area, 2009-2010.  They did an outstanding job characterizing each returned medicine (solid, liquids, gels, etc.).  The data collection was robust to include actual prescribed quantity (number of pills) and the type of materials (glass, foil, paper, plastic) and estimated proportion of packaging materials.  We only reviewed the final draft.  I'm not sure if this paper with final corrections is publicly available.  Please contact Dr. Joel Kreisberg for more info, drkreisberg at teleosis.org<mailto:drkreisberg at teleosis.org>

I'm sorry for the long answer to your short question.  Have you registered your unwanted meds collection events/program in the National Directory of Drug Take-Back Programs?  We are releasing our Second Edition of the National Directory with more than 400 registered events and programs around the country.  This Directory will go to the city and county health and waste management departments.

Matthew Mireles

-----Original Message-----
From: Marti Martz
Sent: May 31, 2011 11:18 AM
To: pharmwaste at lists.dep.state.fl.us
Subject: [Pharmwaste] weight of packaging vs weight of pills at collection events

Hello All,
I am involved in unwanted meds collection events around the Great Lakes through a GLRI funded project titled "Undo the Great Lakes Chemical Brew: Proper PPCP Disposal." At some of these events it is possible to separate packaging from pills, at others it is not. I'm looking for a general consensus on weight of pills vs. weight of packaging. Does such a formula exist?
Marti Martz

On 5/27/2011 10:32 AM, Tenace, Laurie wrote:
Anyone in CA want to discuss this? What will the display materials say?
San Francisco To Launch Waste Medications Take Back Scheme

On Tuesday, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors approved proceeding with a trial program for the collection of expired and unwanted prescription drugs. The pilot takes effect on December 1 of this year.

Under the plan, pharmacies will be required to post "display materials" about the safe disposal of unused prescription drugs by the aforementioned date. Pharmacies not complying with the require would first receive a warning then be subject to a fine.

The plan was approved by the San Francisco Small Business Commission and is receiving funding by the pharmaceutical industry. Recently enacted California SB 966, tasks CalRecycle with developing criteria and program models for collecting and disposing of waste pharmaceuticals statewide.

For more information visit http://www.sfbos.org/ftp/uploadedfiles/bdsupvrs/bosagendas/materials/bag052411_110025.pdf.

Laurie

Laurie Tenace
Environmental Specialist
Waste Reduction Section
Florida Department of Environmental Protection
2600 Blair Stone Rd., MS 4555
Tallahassee FL 32399-2400
P: 850.245.8759
F: 850.245.8811
Laurie.Tenace at dep.state.fl.us<mailto:Laurie.Tenace at dep.state.fl.us>
http://www.dep.state.fl.us/

The Department of Environmental Protection values your feedback as a customer. DEP Secretary Herschel T. Vinyard Jr. is committed to continuously assessing and improving the level and quality of services provided to you. Please take a few minutes to comment on the quality of service you received. Simply click on this link to the DEP Customer Survey<http://survey.dep.state.fl.us/?refemail=Laurie.Tenace@dep.state.fl.us>. Thank you in advance for completing the survey.

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Marti Martz

Pennsylvania Sea Grant

301 Peninsula Drive, Suite 3

Erie,Pa 16505

mam60 at psu.edu<mailto:mam60 at psu.edu>

Phone:814.217.9015

fax 814.217.9021

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