Publish date: 30 April 2026
Tameside Hospital is now home to new bins specially designed to safely dispose of old inhalers in a more environmentally friendly way.
You can drop off your old inhalers at 5 locations around the hospital site:
- Pharmacy Outpatients waiting room (Hartshead Building)
- Children’s Outpatients reception area (Hartshead Building)
- Children’s O&A reception area (Hartshead Building)
- Children’s A&E staff accessible treatment room (Hartshead Building)
- Ward 40 Adult Respiratory (Ladysmith Building) – ask to speak to the Pharmacy Lead.
Inhalers are an important treatment for respiratory conditions such as asthma. But some types of inhalers contain greenhouse gases as propellants to help deliver the medicine to your lungs. While these gases are not harmful to people who use inhalers, they do contribute to climate change by trapping heat in the Earth's atmosphere.
Even after the inhaler is empty of medicine, these environmentally damaging gases remain and so inhalers should never be discarded as part of general household rubbish.
Instead, the best and safest way to get rid of an expired or unused inhaler is to return it to a pharmacy or hospital where it can be disposed of properly.
Inhalers collected in the new bins at Tameside Hospital will be sent for incineration, which degrades the leftover greenhouse gases to make them less harmful to the environment.
The inhaler bins were kindly donated by Veolia, a UK-based company who provide a range of waste, water and energy management services designed to protect the environment.
Nicole Turner, Specialist Pharmacy Technician in Paediatric Asthma, said “People often don’t realise that inhalers shouldn’t go in normal household waste. Returning them to the hospital means we can dispose of them safely, protect the environment, and make sure patients stay informed about the best way to manage their respiratory care.”
Hannah Low, Sustainability Officer, said “Small actions add up. By diverting used inhalers from general waste, we’re preventing harmful greenhouse gases from entering the atmosphere and supporting our wider commitment to reduce Tameside Hospital’s carbon footprint as part of our Joint Green Plan.”
