UNEP: How Pharmaceutical Waste is Impacting the Environment

Pharmaceuticals play a critical role in supporting human and animal health, improving food production and contributing to economic prosperity worldwide, as highlighted by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

However, the programme emphasises that the release of pharmaceuticals into the environment during manufacturing, use and disposal can create serious environmental and public health risks. 

UNEP has identified these risks as increasingly important due to their links with antimicrobial resistance, endocrine disruption, ecosystem toxicity and contamination of water and soil systems.

Environmental distribution of pharmaceutical residues 

According to UNEP, active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) are the biologically active components in medicines and around 4,000 APIs are used globally in human, veterinary and over-the-counter drugs. 

UNEP reports that pharmaceutical residues enter the environment through multiple pathways, including drug manufacturing emissions, patient and animal excretion, aquafarming and improper disposal of unused or expired medicines. 

It is also highlighted that veterinary pharmaceuticals applied in animal husbandry can enter soil through manure used as fertilizer, leading to soil contamination and uptake into food crops. 

“Every veterinary practice has access to step-by-step waste disposal guidance and many have Environment Champions steering the effort at ground level,” says Rosie Naylor, CVS Group Procurement Director and Sustainability Lead. 

“This is leading to less waste going to landfill and more being recycled.”

This process can contribute to biomagnification, where pharmaceutical substances move through food chains and accumulate in organisms. 

UNEP-supported global reviews have documented hundreds of different pharmaceuticals detected in surface water, groundwater and drinking water across many countries, demonstrating the widespread nature of this issue.

Environmental and health impacts 

UNEP emphasises that pharmaceutical residues released into the environment can cause a wide range of ecological and health impacts. 

These include toxicity in organisms, endocrine disruption, changes in microbial communities and the selection and spread of antimicrobial resistance (AMR). 

It is also noted that while aquatic ecosystems are most commonly studied, terrestrial species are also significantly affected, including documented cases such as mass vulture die-offs linked to diclofenac exposure. 

In addition, UNEP highlights that humans are primarily exposed through contaminated water and food, although the full extent of health risks remains not fully understood. 

It further stresses that ecosystem degradation caused by pharmaceutical pollution may indirectly increase risks to public health through broader environmental system disruption and the spread of AMR.

“Solid waste reflects how our societies produce and consume, and how we treat people and the environment in the process,” says Dr Rüdiger Krech, Director a.i., Department of Environment, Climate Change, One Health & Migration at the World Health Organization.

“If we continue to treat waste as an afterthought, we will lock in avoidable disease, climate pollution and deep social inequities.”

Safe disposal of medicines

The programme is actively working on addressing pharmaceuticals in the environment through international cooperation, guidance development and stakeholder engagement. 

Together with the World Health Organization, UNEP has been developing global best practices to reduce pharmaceutical pollution across the full lifecycle of medicines, with support from the Global Environment Facility. 

“Health ministries can start now by ensuring safe management of health-care waste, developing strong occupational health programmes for waste workers, and working with municipalities to reduce health risks from solid waste by closing open dumps and burn sites and gradually improving towards safe services,” says Bruce Gordon, Head, Water, Sanitation, Hygiene and Health Unit, WHO. 

It has also been coordinating outreach events, consultations and knowledge-sharing initiatives, including regional discussions such as the Latin American Subregional Consultation held in Bogotá in 2025. 

A key focus of UNEP is improving the safe disposal of unused medicines through its guidance, Safe Disposal of Unused Medicines – A One Health Approach for National Systems. 

This UNEP framework promotes coordinated action across healthcare, agriculture, households and industry, focusing on waste prevention, take-back schemes, legal frameworks and awareness-raising. 

Through these efforts, UNEP aims to reduce environmental contamination while strengthening the connection between human health, animal health and environmental protection.