Proceedings of the International Conference on Operations & Supply Chain Management 2025 (ICOSCM 2025)

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Take-Back Programs for Sustainable Medicine Disposal: The Case of Kerala’s nPROUD Initiative

Authors
Aasha Sharma1, *, Anguja Agrawa1, Pankaj Shrivastava1
1Symbiosis Institute of Operations Management, Symbiosis International (Deemed University), Pune, India
*Corresponding author. Email: aasha.sharma@siom.in
Corresponding Author
Aasha Sharma
Available Online 24 December 2025.
DOI
10.2991/978-94-6463-914-8_21How to use a DOI?
Keywords
Reverse logistics; Medicine waste; take-back programs; nPROUD; Extended producer responsibility
Abstract

Proper disposal of medicines requires urgent attention due to the associated threats to the environment and public health, which is often overlooked. This oversight is particularly concerning, as it often prevents responsible manufacturers from implementing a reverse logistics system for disposal within their pharmaceutical supply chain. While the disposal of medicines is a waste that adds to environmental, economic, and social costs, a significant amount of unused medications can be brought back into the system by making efforts to reduce waste due to expired medicines. This can be achieved by managing and extending the reverse logistics to the household or end-users. India’s newly launched nPROUD program is evaluated with several global, well-established medicine take-back programs, employing policy design theory. A cross-sectional survey in Kerala discloses significant public support but low awareness. The findings of this study underscore the importance of enhancing public awareness and engagement, along with well-defined stakeholder collaboration, in promoting sustainable medicine consumption and strengthening overall sustainability. None of the take-back programs intend to reintroduce unused, sealed, and unexpired medicines back into the system.

Copyright
© 2025 The Author(s)
Open Access
Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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Volume Title
Proceedings of the International Conference on Operations & Supply Chain Management 2025 (ICOSCM 2025)
Series
Advances in Economics, Business and Management Research
Publication Date
24 December 2025
ISBN
978-94-6463-914-8
ISSN
2352-5428
DOI
10.2991/978-94-6463-914-8_21How to use a DOI?
Copyright
© 2025 The Author(s)
Open Access
Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

Cite this article

risenwbib
TY  - CONF
AU  - Aasha Sharma
AU  - Anguja Agrawa
AU  - Pankaj Shrivastava
PY  - 2025
DA  - 2025/12/24
TI  - Take-Back Programs for Sustainable Medicine Disposal: The Case of Kerala’s nPROUD Initiative
BT  - Proceedings of the International Conference on Operations & Supply Chain Management 2025 (ICOSCM 2025)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 296
EP  - 303
SN  - 2352-5428
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-6463-914-8_21
DO  - 10.2991/978-94-6463-914-8_21
ID  - Sharma2025
ER  -