Sustainable Pharmaceutical Packaging

By Chuck Reed and Mel Bahr

The concept of sustainability has been a topic of interest for many years. Cur-rent international focus has led to the development of regulatory guidance in many of the world’s markets. Along with sterility assurance, process validation, and regulatory compliance, sustainability is becoming a high-profile issue and is considered a critical factor in the design of healthcare facilities, equipment, products, and packaging.

The US Environmental Protection Agency has the following definition: “Sustainability is based on a simple principle: Everything that we need for our survival and well-being depends, either directly or indirectly, on our natural environment. Sustainability creates and maintains the conditions under which humans and nature can exist in productive harmony, that permit fulfilling the social, economic, and other requirements of present and future generations.”

The purpose of this Knowledge Brief is to provide an understanding of the key objectives associated with sustainability as it relates to packaging and materials and an overview of applicable assessment programs and tools.

This Article is published with permission from the International Society of Pharmaceutical Engineering (ISPE), and Pharmaceutical Engineering Magazine.