European Union flag

Location

France

Initiation date

1993-present

Sector setting

 Pharmaceuticals, Pharmacies

Mitigation initiative

Cyclamed is a French non-profit organisation founded in 1993 that implements a take-back scheme for household medicines [1]. Its mission is to collect and recycle unused medicines for human use, expired or not, returned by individuals to pharmacies, with the aim of preserving environmental and public health. The programme is funded entirely by pharmaceutical companies and coordinated with community pharmacists and distributors. All pharmacies must participate under French law, and participating pharmaceutical companies cover the costs. Returned medicines are sorted: empty blister packs and cardboard are separated for recycling, and the residual medicines are incinerated in certified energy-recovery plants. The heat and steam generated are then used to produce electricity and heating for homes, while the residual waste from the incineration is processed for use in road construction [2]. 

GHG emission reduction measures  

Scope 1

N/A

Scope 2

N/A

Scope 3 - Reducing emissions from pharmaceuticals

By aggregating and incinerating waste safely, Cyclamed offsets emissions from alternative energy. The incineration plants recover energy (steam and electricity) that substitutes for grid power, effectively reducing fossil fuel use. At the same time, Cyclamed prevents pharmaceuticals from entering landfills, avoiding the greenhouse gas emissions from landfill decomposition.

Key learnings

Engaging all stakeholders (government, industry, pharmacists) through a governance board helped ensure coordination. In addition, Cyclamed ran public awareness campaigns that helped engage the public with the programme. Key challenges included handling the scale of waste and preventing misuse: for health reasons, returned medicines cannot re-enter the market, which requires a robust quality and traceability system. Cyclamed guarantees the traceability of medical waste by requiring the transporter to issue a dematerialised form for each shipment, which must be signed at every step of the recycling process. Notably, the amount of waste collected has begun to decline (as shown by the 10% drop between 2022 and 2023), partly due to falling sales of medicines linked to better prescription practices by doctors and precision medicine. This “waste prevention” effect means Cyclamed must adjust its targets to focus more on education and reduction strategies. 

Initiative outcomes

Evidence of Success  

8,503 tonnes of unused medicines were collected through the programme in 2023, roughly 10% less than in 2022 (9,415 t), in a context of long-term falling medicine sales. The programme’s penetration is high: alongside Sweden, France (161 g/capita in 2018) has the world’s largest per-capita take-back of unused drugs [1]. In addition, the scheme’s incineration process has recovered the energy equivalent to lighting or heating thousands of homes. While exact CO2 savings are not publicly reported, recovering electricity and heat from the incineration of unused medicines avoids electricity use from the national grid. 

Co-benefits 

Beyond climate mitigation, Cyclamed delivers multiple environmental and social co-benefits. It prevents unused medication from contaminating rivers or soils, thus reducing toxicity and ecological risk [5]. The programme also directly benefits public health by preventing children or pets from consuming unused medicines. Economically, the programme’s funding by the pharmaceutical industry removes disposal costs from municipalities and pharmacies. The programme’s awareness campaigns (now reaching ~70% of citizens) also encourage better medicine use and lower wastage [5]. 

 

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This translation is generated by eTranslation, a machine translation tool provided by the European Commission.

Exclusion of liability
This translation is generated by eTranslation, a machine translation tool provided by the European Commission.