December 9, 2019
10,000,000kgs of Unwanted Medicine Collected on 21st Anniversary of RUM Project
This month marks the 21st Anniversary of the Return of Unwanted Medicines Project. During this time, the project has worked with thousands of community pharmacies and all wholesalers Australia-wide to collect unwanted or expired medicine and transported them to EPA-approved incinerators to have them safely disposed of.
Since the inception of the project in 1998, we have collected, transported and incinerated over 10,000,000kg of unwanted or expired medicines. That’s a total of four Olympic sized swimming pools full of unwanted and expired medicines returned by the community, safely handled by pharmacies and transported to incinerators.
RUM Project Manager Toni Riley would like to thank the community for their support in this crucial project. “Thanks to the initiative of the community there is 10,000,000kgs worth of medicine that was never able to pose a risk to our waterways, soil, pets, children, and homes. Instead, these unwanted medicines have been destroyed using high temperature incineration by EPA approved facilities.”
“We’d also like to thank pharmacies for their dedicated involvement in this important Quality Use of Medicines initiative, as well as the wholesalers for their essential support in providing the logistics for the RUM project.”
“And most importantly, congratulations to the Commonwealth government for supporting and funding the Return of Unwanted Medicines program and driving this significant milestone.”
We encourage all Australians to continue to support this vital project, by returning all unwanted and expired medicine to your community pharmacy.
The Return of Unwanted Medicines Project is a free service that offers a way to dispose of unwanted or expired medicines safely and conveniently at your local community pharmacy. Find out more about the service here.