[Pharmwaste] RE: Cost free disposal program

Fri Aug 23 15:16:38 EDT 2013

Meika,

The devil's in the details of Vermont's circumstances.  How do your existing laws affect home-generated pharmaceutical waste?  Do they require any special handling, security measures, etc.?  Can your legislature address any possible shortcomings in statute to make it easier for voluntary programs to work?  Is your Legislature willing to put any money or effort toward the issue?  For instance, could any government staff person coordinate any voluntary efforts, track collection sites, etc.?  Otherwise, it seems a voluntary program could just be good intentions and wishful thinking.

In comparison, California's SB 486 (2009) (http://www.calrecycle.ca.gov/HomeHazWaste/Sharps/Reporting/default.htm) essentially let the industry show what they're currently doing to voluntarily address the sharps waste problem.  A third-party group evaluated their plans (http://www.acgov.org/board/district5/sharps_reportcard.htm) and found them to be "...failing to provide patients safe, convenient, cost effective methods of needle disposal."

By comparison in another field, Call2Recycle is a non-profit organization and the only free (i.e., voluntary) rechargeable battery and cellphone collection program in North America.  It's probably safe to say it's voluntary because there's inherent value in those materials.  Dealing with home-generated pharmaceutical waste would just be a liability in comparison.

In 2007, California's legislature tried mandating a statewide home-generated pharmaceutical waste collection program with no cost to the consumer through SB 966 (http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/07-08/bill/sen/sb_0951-1000/sb_966_bill_20070223_introduced.html) but that morphed into the SB 966 legislation that actually passed (http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/07-08/bill/sen/sb_0951-1000/sb_966_bill_20071012_chaptered.html), which required my agency to create voluntary model guidelines (http://www.calrecycle.ca.gov/HomeHazWaste/Medications/ModelProgram/Criteria.pdf), evaluate model programs, and write a Report to the Legislature (http://www.calrecycle.ca.gov/Publications/Documents/General/2011008.pdf) with recommendations.  We found that our statute and regulations could (still) be improved to make collection easier, we found every type of program had its advantages in certain circumstances, and after the full public/stakeholder input process, recommended an Extended Producer Responsibility approach.  The most recent effort to that end is SB 727, which is on PSI's list of proposed pharma EPR legislation (http://www.productstewardship.us/displaycommon.cfm?an=1&subarticlenbr=540), and is related to the language in Alameda's and King County's ordinances that did pass.  One result of our SB 966 efforts was to create a (recently improved) online database of voluntary collection sites (http://www.calrecycle.ca.gov/FacIT/Facility/Search.aspx?FeedStockCategoryID=13), which grew from 76 collection sites when I started here in March 2009 to 313 sites today, many of which follow our voluntary model program guidelines.

Feel free to contact me if you want any details.  I hope that helps.  And by the way, it looks like Ed Gottlieb's helpful text describing international programs also appears here (http://www.napra.org/pages/Practice_Resources/resources_for_pharmacy_operators.aspx?id=2128) with references.

Burke

Mr. Burke Lucy
Integrated Waste Management Specialist
Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery (CalRecycle)
1001 I Street, PO Box 4025
Sacramento, CA 95812
Burke.Lucy at CalRecycle.ca.gov<mailto:Burke.Lucy at CalRecycle.ca.gov>
916.341.6592
[California Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery (CalRecycle)]<http://www.calrecycle.ca.gov/>
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From: pharmwaste-bounces at lists.dep.state.fl.us [mailto:pharmwaste-bounces at lists.dep.state.fl.us] On Behalf Of DiPietro, Meika
Sent: Thursday, August 22, 2013 11:32 AM
To: 'pharmwaste at lists.dep.state.fl.us'
Subject: [Pharmwaste] Cost free disposal program

Good Afternoon,

The Vermont legislature has tasked me with developing recommendations regarding the creation of a voluntary statewide drug disposal program for unused over the counter and prescription drugs at no cost to the consumer. Besides Maine's mail back program, I am not aware of anything that exists that would serve this purpose. Can you please let me know if others have ideas or have implemented a drug disposal program that is free to the consumer?

Thank you so much,
Meika

Meika DiPietro, MS, Program Manager
Vermont Prescription Monitoring System
Vermont Department of Health
{Phone} 802-652-4147
http://healthvermont.gov/adap/VPMS/aspx

Please note my new email address: Meika.DiPietro at state.vt.us<mailto:Meika.DiPietro at state.vt.us>

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