Biological treatment of pharmaceutical wastes

Due to the potentially lethal environmental effects of these pollutants, several pharmaceutics in drinking, surface, and groundwater are among the rising issues around the world. The constant increase in pharmaceutical usage caused by rising population and drug advancement is to blame for rising pharmaceutical waste. Pharmaceutical waste refers to any waste containing medical drugs that is unused, damaged, expired, contaminated, or no longer used. Improperly disposed of pharmaceutical waste such as expired and unused drugs, as well as used test strips, fills the lands and pollutes the water bodies in landfills. Biologists are currently working to value pharmaceutical waste through biological pretreatment techniques. Due to affordable bioprocessing and highly effective valorization power, biological pretreatment methods used aerobic and anaerobic methodologies to manage and treat pharmaceutical waste and wastewater. In our society, there is a greater need for education and guidance about how harmful these medical drugs are to our environment. As a result, proper waste management techniques and guidelines should be prioritized to reduce the release and generation of hazardous emissions or chemicals. This chapter briefly describes the types and sources of pharmaceutical waste, as well as how this waste will be valorized by biological treatment methods, reducing the burden on land.