European Household Pharmaceutical Waste Disposal Practices Survey, 2025

Forty expert responses from 35 European countries detail national legislation, collection systems, and public awareness for unused medicines. The survey, conducted from March to October 2025 by Przemyslaw Kardas, found annual collection rates varied from 12.4 to over 200 grams per capita. Results highlight heterogeneous disposal practices and gaps between policy intent and implementation across Europe.

Use Cases

• Compare national legislation and collection systems for household pharmaceutical waste across 35 European countries.
• Analyze the relationship between extended producer responsibility schemes and higher medicine collection volumes.
• Assess the prevalence and reported effectiveness of pharmacy-based take-back schemes and public awareness campaigns.

Strengths

• Covers 35 European countries, providing a broad geographical scope.
• Includes quantitative metrics such as annual collection rates ranging from 12.4 to over 200 grams per capita.
• Survey conducted in 2025, offering contemporary evidence on the topic.

Limitations

• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• The dataset is small (135.6 KB), indicating limited scope or summary-level data.

Provenance

Source

figshare, author Przemyslaw Kardas

Collection Method

Europe-wide, cross-sectional online expert survey conducted from 17 March to 15 October 2025.

Time Range

Survey conducted in 2025.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-28 05:27:47; freshness should be verified.

Geography

35 European countries.