Manufacturer GSK is urging more pharmacists to join its UK-wide inhaler recycling scheme as it calls for patients to save tens of millions of used inhalers from ending up in landfill.

About 1,300 pharmacies – approximately 10 per cent of all pharmacies in the UK – have signed up to the Complete the Cycle recycling and recovery scheme since GSK launched a pilot in 2011.

This meant 75 per cent of the population were now within three miles of a pharmacy involved in the scheme, GSK estimated.

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	The manufacturer will be attempting to drive the message home to the public on Monday with a five-metre-high model inhaler outside Boots at London's Victoria station.

GSK launched a pilot recycling scheme at 40 pharmacies in 2011 and collected 6,000 used inhalers in just six months. Later that year it extended the scheme – which involves the recycling of respiratory inhalers made by other manufacturers – to 200 Co-operative pharmacies.

During the pilot, GSK found that some of the returned inhalers were not empty, providing opportunities for pharmacists to help patients improve the way they use inhalers and help them manage their condition, the manufacturer said. 

The scheme was beneficial for two reasons, said RPS chief executive Helen Gordon, who is supporting the scheme with the NPA and Recycle Now – part of the Waste and Resource Action Programme.

"It is good for patients as it establishes the opportunity for regular interface with their pharmacist about their inhaler, to help them get the best out of their treatment," Ms Gordon said. "It is also good for the environment in terms of recycling resources, reducing waste and to help deliver against the sustainability agenda."

UK patients used 73 million inhalers each year and it was thought that 63 per cent were thrown away at home, GSK said. 

And, although local councils can recycle certain plastics, some of the inhaler components contain plastics that are not readily recycled in council schemes, which means that most respiratory inhalers end up dumped in landfill.

In the Complete the Cycle Scheme, inhalers are collected in a box behind the pharmacy counter and any parts that cannot be recycled will be converted into electricity or heat, using the waste-to-energy process.

GSK has estimated that if everyone who used an inhaler returned them for recycling for a year, it would save 512,330 tonnes of CO2eq, the equivalent of driving a Golf car around the world 88,606 times.

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