Recycling inhalers as part of our Green Plan
Does your child use an inhaler like the ones pictured, and do you have a couple, a handful or even a drawer full of old ones - run out, broken, forgotten?
The Paediatric Respiratory Team based at Hillingdon Hospital knows how many of its young patients have stacks of the coloured devices stashed away. Meanwhile, you’ve taken your youngster to the doctor for a new one.
Now you can do your bit for the environment by recycling old inhalers, thanks to a partnership between The Hillingdon Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and waste management company Grundon.
This initiative is part of our Trust Green Plan for ‘net zero’, and it will help recover valuable materials and repurpose the captured gases. It also helps the NHS to reduce its activity-related carbon emissions.
Picture: (l-r) Niamh Goff, paediatric respiratory clinical nurse specialist; Dr Yashasvi Rajeev, paediatric registrar; and Dr Dhwani Shah, paediatric resident doctor
Simply go to the Children’s A&E Department at the hospital in Pield Heath Road, Hillingdon (or Bumblebee Ward or the outpatients’ department) next time you visit, and find the special blue recycling bin. Pop your child’s device in there and we’ll do the rest. You do not have to be one of our patients to use the service. Every child recycling an inhaler gets a sticker.
Inhalers need to be the type with a gas cannister, not the powder version, but it doesn’t matter if there is still propellant gas inside, which often outlasts the medicine also contained in the inhaler.
The Paediatric Respiratory Team has also linked with local schools to collect old inhalers from their pupils and a scheme for adult patients is on the cards.
Simple inhaler checklist
If your child uses an inhaler:
- make sure it is in date (expiry date will be marked)
- check the dose counter, if it has one, or record the number of doses used separately (remember, the medicine can run out before the propellant gas)
- if you need a new inhaler, consult your GP.