Introduction: The reverse logistics process of disused or expired medicine for the general
population makes the reverse flow, returning along its production and distribution chain, to have
its final disposal environmentally sound. In this sense, the pharmacist is fundamental because he
plays the role of knowledge multiplier, qualifying, training, and instructing employees and
consumers about good environmental practices related to health waste. Objective: To carry out a
situational diagnosis of reverse logistics and spatial analysis of expired or disused household
medications in a pharmaceutical retail chain in Brazil. Method: It is an exploratory, cross sectional, and prospective study that used product/waste information obtained at different
collection points in a network of pharmacies with 400 establishments in Brazil, from 2020 to
2022. Results: The study showed that the network collected a volume of 4,519.74 kg of expired
medicines from the population between 2020 and 2022, concentrating the largest collection
volume in the North region (69.1%). It is also noteworthy that Belem was the municipality with
the highest collection, concentrating 92.5% of the collection in the state of Pará. Another
important point was the presentation of a manual for the implementation of reverse logistics for
expired medicines for the population. Conclusion: The findings of this study should contribute
to the improvement and application of reverse logistics for expired medicines for the population
in Brazil.
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