The other day, I found several ancient inhalers while cleaning my garage. I decided to throw them away. Just tossed them in the garbage can without a look back. But, eventually, my environmental consciousness got to me.
I know those old inhalers contain tricholoroethylene and other chlorofluorocarbons (yes, once upon a time these harmful chemicals helped people breathe), which can deplete the ozone layer and is pretty much bad for the environment. I thought that just meant to spray the inhaler into your mouth and not towards the sky. Apparently, this was a problem, and a few years ago, all the inhalers evolved into hydrofluoroalkane or HFA inhalers (supposedly the greener alternative).
Of course, I have one of these green inhalers, but I wonder how do I recycle my toxic inhalers from the past. I explored the online world of Googling relevant terms, and surprisingly, I didn't get much feedback. I didn't learn much. I want to recycle more, but there are things like inhalers that we don't know how to dispose of. Throw it away? Return to the company? Hold on to it?
Finally, I found FDA that gave the simple message: contact your local trash and recycling facilities. That's it. Next time I find an old inhaler, I'll recycle it properly. But with such minimal knowledge of this issue (if I Google something, the right answer should miraculously come up), I hope they go to the right place.
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