Health Innovation Hub Ireland with the Irish College of General Practitioners and industry consortium led by Offerre, launches an inhaler take-back scheme to reduce medical waste
Health Innovation Hub Ireland with the Irish College of General Practitioners and industry consortium led by Offerre, launches an inhaler take-back scheme to reduce medical waste
Health Innovation Hub Ireland (HIHI), in partnership with the Irish College of General Practitioners and industry consortium Offerre has today launched a six month pilot to collect and recycle used inhalers from over 30 GP surgeries and pharmacies in Galway and Limerick. Broadly, the pilot will:
- Collect and recycle used inhalers safely.
- Measure environmental and economic impact – waste, volume, inhaler type and component breakdown.
- Evaluate user and provider experience.
Vital for conditions such as asthma and COPD inhalers often end up in landfill, releasing residual greenhouse gases. Inhaler use in Ireland contributes an estimated 54,765 tonnes of CO₂ annually – equivalent to the yearly emissions of around 12,000 cars or over 60,000 return flights from Dublin to New York. This new pilot, one of the winners of the 2025 HIHI, HSE and Irish College of General Practitioners ‘GreenTech in Healthcare’ call, aims to reduce the environmental impact of discarded inhalers.
Through this innovative collaboration, the Offerre led consortium, is providing end-to-end services for the collection, sterilisation and recycling of inhalers. HIHI is leading project management, data analysis and evaluation, while the Irish College of GPs is coordinating participating GP practices and engage patients in the take-back scheme.
The study will assess the environmental and economic impact of inhaler recycling, as well as patient and site engagement. Findings could inform the potential national rollout of a sustainable inhaler recycling model.
HIHI, National GreenTech in Health Lead, Eimear Galvin said:
“At present, there are limited to no systems in place in Ireland to collect and recover used inhalers. By looking at waste, volume, inhaler type and component breakdown we see this pilot data as the first step in evidence building for a potential national take back scheme.”