Publication

Abstract : Pharmaceutical and personal care products have been recognized as contaminants of emerging concern, and many compounds are entering the environment through non-source points like households. Integrating circular economy principles into the supply chain has been proposed as a sustainable waste minimization strategy. Drug recycling programs facilitate the return of end-of-use medicine from consumers, quality checks, screening for reusability, and redistribution to people in need. In this study, we conceptualize a blockchain-enabled drug recycling (BCT-DR) process and identify the barriers to implementing BCT-DR. The contextual relationships between the barriers are examined using Total interpretive structural modeling(TISM) and classified using the Cross-Impact Matrix Multiplication Applied to Classification (MICMAC) approach. Among the factors considered for the study, inadequate regulatory policies, technological complexity, and data risks are found to be the key barriers to the adoption of BCT-DR. The estimation of the contextual relationships of the barriers to BCT-DR has implications for managers, policymakers, researchers, and health system actors in designing effective interventional strategies to address the barriers to BCT-DR.