It is generally difficult to perceive pharmaceutical wastes as a resource but for some there is an obvious cash value to these wastes.

The tonnages of pharma waste are staggering, though most of that is diffuse and arises in bits and bobs from household sources. Elsewhere, there is profit in disposal of pharma wastes from healthcare and manufacturing sources and an emerging industry focusing of treatment of wastewater to remove the pharmaceutical residues most of which arise from excretion in urine.

This is a good overview but fails to consider the absence of collection schemes from pharma wastes of domestic or community origin in the UK, or the possibility for cautious re-use of bulk pharmaceutical wastes for charitable aid purposes such as with the tremendous work of Intercare medical aid for Africa, previously reviewed in the Clinical Waste Discussion Forum.