The leftover medications of treatments and the expired, as well as empty medicine containers are residues that have to be managed specifically. For two reasons: to avoid possible contamination of soils or rivers, -something that could occur if, for example, to the toilet, to the drain of the sink or the common garbage; and to recover the materials from which the containers are made so that they can be reintroduced in the circular economy.
For this, the first step is to deposit them at the sigre points arranged for collection in 22,200 pharmacies. And most citizens know it and actively collaborate in this process after cleaning in their home kit; according to the collection data of the entity that improve year after year. Specifically, in 2024 the collection of empty containers or with remains of expired medications increased 4.3% compared to the previous year and in each pharmacy an average of 105.6 grams of these waste per inhabitant was deposited.
Step by step
After that first step, the following places all these medication waste at the classification plant located in Tudela de Duero, Valladolid, where the process, proper, for the subsequent environmental treatment of pharmaceutical waste.
As Miguel Vega, General Director of Sigre, explains,-the entity in charge of the correct environmental management of medication waste-, “it is an installation designed exclusively for this purpose, under strict standards of sustainability and energy efficiency, with a high degree of automation and in which advanced artificial intelligence technologies (AI) are used, which make it international reference in the efficient and sustainable management of these management. waste ».
The Sigre and the Packaging Classification Plant and Drug Residues has a comprehensive approach, which not only manages waste but also promotes citizen awareness actions.
The feeding line is the first point of the recycling process. There the bags are deposited- of different color according to the province of origin- that contain them and from there, after passing through the abbreviation, a variable divisor directs them to two parallel lines on the way to the triage cabins, one manual and another endowed with a coach robot.
From that point, and already separated according to the fraction to which each one responds, –Papel/cardboard, glass, metals, plastics, etc., «the waste passes through various automated processes that continue to separate them by weight, size, properties and technical characteristics. “Once- the total weight and autonomous origin continues, they are temporarily stored in specific areas and containers, for subsequent shipment to authorized managers that will recycle, value energy or eliminate, according to the current regulations for each of them.”
AI and technology
Robotic systems and artificial intelligence implemented in the plant «have memorized more than 10,000 images of materials, allowing a highly precise and adapted separation to manage a wide variety of formats and products. Additionally, the plant has specialized technologies involved in different phases of the processes, thanks to those that almost 70% of the containers they receive are recycled ». Among these technologies the director
General of Sigre cites, for example, emptyers of blisters and packaging wasters to eliminate remains of medicines. “This last process, by the way,, says Vega, is carried out with zero water discharge since it has a water collection and water tank system, which in turn will also be managed by other authorized managers.”
The five waste categories in which the containers and medications that entered the feeding ribbons are separated at the beginning of the process plus those that may occur during the management process, such as washing water, are separated, stored and derived from specific managers of each of them. And it will be from that moment when each of them becomes again part of their own circular economy circuit, according to paper and cardboard, plastic, metals, etc.
The containers that cannot be recycled and the remains of medications are subjected to a fuel elaboration process derived from waste (CDR), for subsequent energy valuation, which allows to take advantage of its calorific power and minimize the environmental impact.
Demanding regulations
On the other hand, the Packaging and Waste Classification Plant, “is a key installation in the drug waste management system, and, therefore, one of the main challenges it responds is to be able to evolve to comply with the new regulations and standards, increasingly demanding, for the correct management of these waste,” says Miguel Vega. As, for example, he details, “those that imply the greatest efficiency in the recovery of materials and a significant reduction in their carbon footprint.”