Busan said on the 30th that it held a launch ceremony for the "Neighborhood expired medicine safe collection team."
At the launch ceremony held that morning in the city hall auditorium, Park Heong-joon, the mayor of Busan, Park Jeong-hye, head of the Busan regional office of the Health Insurance Review & Assessment Service (HIRA), Lee Hyang-ran, vice president of the Busan branch of the pharmacists association, Cheon Young-gwon, head of the Busan Senior Club Association, heads of senior job program agencies, members of the expired medicine safe collection team, and about 700 others attended.
The safe collection team is a Busan-style senior job model that converges welfare, environment, and health. It was launched to solve the growing problem of expired medicines and to provide older adults with opportunities to participate in society. The city said this is the first attempt to run a door-to-door safe collection team project across the region by using senior jobs.
Last year, the city ran a pilot door-to-door expired medicine safe collection project. Through this, it collected 306 kg of expired medicines over two months from the end of September last year.
Starting this year, the city will formalize the project, expand its scale and collection areas, and build a sustainable collection system to push it in earnest. Through cooperation between the city and 20 senior job program agencies in Busan, a total of 900 older adults will participate, with plans to expand to around 1,000 by year-end.
Beginning in February, the safe collection team will travel across all 16 districts and counties of Busan to start activities for the "door-to-door expired medicine safe collection service." It will operate mainly in everyday spaces such as apartment complexes, senior centers, 16 senior clubs, Community Service Centers, and pharmacies. During the expired medicine collection process, it will also carry out everyday environmental and health promotion activities that guide disposal methods and precautions. Collected expired medicines will be discarded after going through designated disposal procedures.
Mayor Park Heong-joon said, "The expired medicine safe collection team will become a representative Busan-style eco-friendly senior job model that captures three goals at once: expanding older adults' participation in society, protecting the environment, and improving citizens' health," adding, "The city will discover and expand sustainable, eco-friendly senior jobs that protect Busan's future."