School eco warriors discover how to transform everyday inhaler usage  

By Tamsen, 14, Jill Dando News

Priory Community School Academy’s student-led Eco Committee – PECO – learnt how to dispose of discarded inhalers in a more eco-friendly way.

The Somerset school students will now be encouraging all students to get on board with the sustainable move! 

ECO members got the opportunity to speak to Robin Chisman, a GP from Tudor Lodge Surgery.

INHALER TALKS

He leads on sustainability projects in the NHS for Weston and Worle, and at the moment, he’s working on a campaign to reduce the amount of inhalers that aren’t disposed of properly.

The propellants in inhalers contain harmful greenhouse gases, so they have to be incinerated so they aren’t released into the atmosphere in such a large quantity.

People are meant to hand their used inhalers into a pharmacy so they can be disposed of properly, but most people don’t know about this.

Another way of reducing the amount of greenhouse gases released is to change the type of inhalers.

Chisman’s surgery has managed to change everyone over to more environmentally friendly inhalers, but there’s a much more sustainable type of inhaler that not many people know about.

It would be very hard to change everyone over to it, because it also requires a different technique to use.

SCHOOL CAMPAIGN

However, 9 in 10 people would choose to learn the different technique once they know about the effect it has on greenhouse gas emissions.

As part of PECO, we have decided to take on this campaign and push it within the school, to hopefully raise awareness about the environmental impact inhalers can have.

We hope to have the campaign well underway by January.