Overview

• Collection rate climbed to a record 77% in 2024, up from 71% in 2023.
• Environmental protection is now the top motivation for 60% of respondents, surpassing household safety concerns.
• Seventy percent of people pre-sort medication packaging at home before returning drugs to pharmacies.
• Pharmacies collect returns in locked containers then transfer them via wholesalers to energy-recovery plants where incineration generates heat and electricity.
• The practice has expanded alongside a two-decade trend of 1% annual declines in medication sales, and no humanitarian redistribution of returned drugs has occurred since 2008.