Pharmaceutical waste in ophthalmic surgical practice accounts for a significant proportion of medical waste per year.
A large proportion of pharmaceutical waste from cataract surgery consists of topical ophthalmic medications that are unused or lightly used before being discarded. One study by Tauber and colleagues found that among four surgical sites in the United States, 65.7% of eye drops were unused at time of discarding, resulting in unnecessary potential carbon emissions of 711 to 2,135 kg of CO2 equivalents per month. A number of steps can be taken to reduce this level of waste.
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