The way SIGRE works is based on the shared commitment and responsibility of all the stakeholders in the pharmaceutical sector.
SIGRE is a unique model of effective and efficient operation involving all the stakeholders from the pharmaceutical sector: laboratories, pharmacies and distribution companies.
Through this joint effort, members of the public have access to a system offering full health and environmental safeguards for the proper recycling of packaging and leftover medicines.
DIAGRAM SHOWING HOW THE SYSTEM WORKS
SIGRE has been designed as a closed management system, operating on the basis of reverse logistics. This ensures that the collection process is supervised by the same professionals who make the medicines available to the public.
To this end, we have installed points known as Punto SIGRE in pharmacies throughout Spain. They have a white container in which to deposit leftover medicines and their packaging.
The pharmaceutical distribution companies remove the waste products deposited in the Punto SIGRE and take them to their warehouses, where they are guarded until authorised waste managers take them to the Packaging and Unused Medicines Treatment Plant, a facility designed especially for this activity and located in Tudela del Duero (Valladolid).
Here, the waste products collected by SIGRE are sorted, to identify recyclable packaging materials, while leftover medicines and non-recyclable packaging are sent to the appropriate authorised waste managers for energy recovery or disposal, according to their environmental classification.