Inhaler Recycling

[Superzob]

Someone recently raised this issue, but I can’t find the earlier post. A few years ago, our local Boots stopped taking my used Symbicort Turbohalers, which was a shame because they are very complicated and must cost the earth to manufacture. However, I’m now pleased to report that they are now recycling them, which is a lot better than putting them in plastic waste.

I would therefore encourage readers to take their used inhalers back to their pharmacy (if they are not doing so already) as I suspect many inhalers are recyclable.

[corriena]

I pop mine in my recycle bin 😷😉

[PaulineHM in reply to corriena]

Please check with you local council - am 99% certain they can’t be recycled and need to be returned to the pharmacy to be destroyed.

Am working on people of influence who can change this wasteful system.

Enjoy your day.

[corriena in reply to PaulineHM]

But airasols can be recycled so i would of thought the canisters can go in recycaling bin 🤔

[PaulineHM in reply to corriena]

After searching the internet I am not able to find anything which says that used inhalers can be recycled via local recycling.

Most of what I have found mentioned they should be returned to pharmacies for medical disposal.

I wish there was a scheme where we could recycle them and will raise it at the next meeting I attend with the local respiratory group of the ICB.

[Morrison10]

I have NHS Phillips Respironics inspire Delux. It gets serviced every year.x

[peege]

Until my local pharmacy gets back on to the recycling I save mine until I do a trip to the dump (aka recycling centre) the other side of town. The container goes in the hard plastics and the aerosol with those.

[andy121]

I just picked up a new inhaler and on the chemist label in bold it says to return used or unwanted inhalers to a pharmacy for disposal. Which is good.

[Egpa]

Hi Superzpb, I take mine to the hospital when I have appointments or you can just pop into respiratory dept and drop them off.

[PaulineHM]

As far as I am aware these items cannot be recycled anywhere. There used to be a scheme to recycle run by GSK however when we left Europe it stopped.

Most people return these to their pharmacy to be destroyed. I am constantly trying to address this issue and need I think to up my game to push this matter forward in a bigger way again!

[Ava09]

We do not need the plastic outer part of inhalers each time we get a new one.The original ones we have can be reused until unfit for purpose or breaks.....just reinsert the new medicine container into old plastic outer.....

This would save millions of discarded plastic worldwide. ....

[K2a4n805]

Hi, I’ve always put my used Symbicort inhalers in our recycling bin.

[LanarkEric1949]

Hi Superzob,I have been using Respimat inhalers for four years now They always had six little boxes on them to indicate re use for them At the time of first using the inhaler I took it back to the Pharmacy just to ask for a refill only ,I was told the GPs had never applied to have this facility to be set up.Always seemed to me such a waste of money Thankfully this is no longer the case and I can order refills now

[Collienut]

I return them to our GPs pharmacy as they and them for recycling. 😊

[SIBELIUS55]

I had no idea that Symbicort inhalers could be recycled ... thank you for the information!

[Patf1]

Thank you for the tip!