Journal
JOURNAL OF HAZARDOUS MATERIALS
Volume 162, Issue 2-3, Pages 730-735Publisher
ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV
DOI: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2008.05.089
Keywords
Waste; Pharmaceutical; Disposal; Landfill
Categories
Funding
- Orange County Utilities Solid Waste Division of Orange County, Florida
- Hinkley Center for Solid and Hazardous Waste Management Research
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The occurrence and fate of pharmaceuticals in landfills has been largely neglected. Once discarded in municipal solid waste (MSW), pharmaceuticals within a landfill may undergo degradation, adsorption, or enter the leachate and eventually exit the landfill. The active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) concentration of MSW was predicted using available statistics on medication usage and directly measured by a MSW composition study. Estimation calculations resulted in a potential concentration of APIs from 7.4 to 45 mg/kg of MSW, varying with the percentage of dispensed medications assumed to become unused. Direct measurement resulted in the collection of 22 APIs comprising a total of 22,910 mg. This resulted in a final concentration of 8.1 mg/kg within MSW. Additionally, 45 empty medication containers were collected which potentially contained 33 differing APIs upon disposal. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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