Experts at Evelina London highlight importance of recycling inhalers

Experts from Evelina London are encouraging asthma patients across the UK to recycle their inhalers.

Experts at our children’s hospital are raising awareness of the importance of recycling inhalers to children and young people.

Inhalers are used to manage lung conditions, such as asthma, by delivering medicine in a fine mist straight into the lungs.

There are around 1.1 million children in the UK with asthma. In the UK, we go through 73 million inhalers per year, with many being incorrectly thrown away with domestic waste. Disposal to landfill leads to the release of gases that are key contributors to global warming.

Our clinicians are encouraging children, young people and their families to return their inhalers to pharmacies instead of throwing them away.  In the UK, if everyone returned their inhalers in this way for one year, it would save 512,330 tonnes of carbon dioxide. This is the same amount that would be released if you were to drive a small car around the world 88,606 times!

Dr Alice Roueché, consultant general paediatrician at Evelina London, said: “Our job is to keep children and young people safe and healthy, and this includes protecting the future of the planet for them. By disposing of inhalers correctly we can make a small but important difference."

As climate change is an important issue for everyone, we are encouraging all our children, young people and their families to get involved and to return their used inhalers to their local pharmacy. For further information, please visit the Recycle Now website.