Medical Waste Contamination

With the medical field advancing, prescriptions and other medicines are becoming more common and are increasing biomedical waste. These drugs are leaching into our water resources through improper disposal such as rinsing them down a sink, throwing them into household trash, or directly depositing them into the environment. At Worcester Polytechnic Institute this is a problem because students do not have access to proper disposal methods. They are adding to the wastewater problem instead of helping it. Our methods to change WPI’s effect on the problem were conducted through research and a survey of students’ pharmaceutical waste habits. We learned the best solution is to install drop-boxes on campus. In order to solve this problem, we need to start small.https://digitalcommons.wpi.edu/gps-posters/1216/thumbnail.jp