The environmental elephant in the office: medications

I thought many excellent points were raised in this commentary. Thank you to the authors for advocating for action. I thought one area that could also have been raised is around the quantity of meds prescribed and the impact this has on the number of pill bottles used to dispense medications. Single use plastics is another huge environmental concern that needs to be addressed. My frustration which may be confined to Saskatchewan has been plastic pill bottle use for 34 days of many meds and the unwillingness of regulatory bodies and insurance companies to allow more pills at less frequent intervals for chronic disease medications for stable conditions. The multiple trips back and forth to pharmacies to fill meds that will only be dispensed in minuscule amounts and the fact that this is often not coordinated with other medication refills is another environmental impact that needs to be addressed. We need to partner more with our pharmacy colleagues to address these concerns!