[Seoul District News] Yongsan-gu Completes Pharmaceutical Waste Collection System Overhaul, Establishes 23 Bases Including District Office, Community Centers, Health Centers, and Welfare Centers
[Asia Economy Reporter Jong-il Park] Yongsan-gu (District Mayor Seongjang Hyun) is actively improving the collection system for expired medicines and promoting the separate disposal of unused pharmaceuticals, which are hazardous waste.
Expired medicines refer to drugs that have passed their expiration date or are kept without being taken. If they are not incinerated and instead buried or disposed of down the drain, they can enter the soil, groundwater, or rivers, causing environmental pollution. Therefore, according to the Waste Management Act, they must be separately disposed of in designated collection boxes and then incinerated.
Since 2006, when the need for separate disposal of expired medicines was raised mainly by civic groups, a public-private agreement was signed in 2009, whereby pharmacies collected expired medicines and health centers handled their disposal. However, due to low convenience in separate disposal and insufficient promotion, the system was not actively implemented.
In January, the district installed collection boxes at 23 key locations within the area and designated managers. In February, on-site training was conducted for the managers at each location.
The locations with expired medicine collection boxes include Yongsan-gu Office, 16 community service centers, Yongsan-gu Health Center, Yongsan-gu Health Branch Office, Hyochang Comprehensive Social Welfare Center, Galwol Comprehensive Social Welfare Center, Yongsan-gu Disabled Welfare Center, and Yongsan Senior Comprehensive Social Welfare Center.
A district official stated, "Many residents keep old medicines at home because they do not know how to dispose of expired medicines," adding, "There are also frequent cases of throwing them away as general waste due to the lack of separate collection boxes."
For expired medicines, pills and powders should be placed in the collection box without opening the packaging, and liquids or ointments should be tightly sealed with the cap and then placed in the container into the collection box.
The district collects the medicines accumulated in the collection boxes once a month for incineration. Starting in the second half of this year, a focused collection day for expired medicines in apartment complexes will also be operated.
Seongjang Hyun, Mayor of Yongsan-gu, said, "We have improved the collection of expired medicines from being pharmacy-centered to public institution-based collection points," and added, "We ask all residents to use the designated collection boxes when disposing of medicines."
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