Degradation of the Pharmaceutical and Medical Waste on Landfills Due to Rainwater Infiltration

Abstract

In Bosnia and Herzegovina, there is a large number of non-sanitary landfills and landfills where pharmaceutical waste from households is being disposed, as well as the medical waste from different health institutions. Expired pharmaceuticals are mostly being disposed there, because there is very little attention paid on waste sorting at the place of its origin. Now days, there are thousands of different medicine, and mainly, along with the other household waste, expired antibiotics are disposed of too. Degradation of expired pharmaceuticals in the environment very often leads to formation of products with completely different properties in regards to the original compound, but also it is not uncommon for those newly formed products to be more toxic than the original ones. This paper analyses the impact of rainwater infiltration on the body of the landfill where expired pharmaceuticals are being disposed of, as well as other medical waste at municipal landfills in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Field studies on the size of the rainwater infiltration as a function of different parameters have been conducted, and also degradation analysis of different expired drugs that are being disposed of in landfills has been performed.