This symposium aims to educate the community on reducing pharmaceutical waste by presenting current evidence on safe medicine disposal, highlighting key evidence gaps, and sharing lessons from innovative solutions to inform future practice. The symposium will be chaired by Dr Shania Liu and will comprise three presentations.
First, Dr Christine Selvaraj (Universiti Malaya, Malaysia) will discuss the contribution of the healthcare sector to planetary health, focusing on pharmaceutical contamination and its environmental and public health implications.
Second, Dr Stephanie Mathieson (The University of Sydney, Australia) will present findings from her recent systematic review of interventions to improve the safe disposal of opioid medicines, and outline practical strategies that attendees can adopt.
Third, Professor Dr Pauline Lai (Universiti Malaya, Malaysia) will present on lessons learnt from resource-constrained settings in Southeast Asia: case studies of innovative approaches to safe medication disposal.

Learning outcomes
By the end of this symposium, participants will be able to:
1. Describe the environmental pathways and public health implications of pharmaceutical waste, including its contribution to planetary health challenges.
2. Apply practical, evidence-informed strategies to promote safe medication disposal within their own practice or community.
3. Evaluate innovative approaches from resource-constrained settings and consider their transferability to other contexts.