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Researchers from the School of Pharmacy at the University of Nottingham have been awarded £1.19m as part of two-year project to tackle pharmaceutical water pollution.
The PhRESHWater (Pharmaceuticals Reduction in the Environment through Sustainable Healthcare) project will take place in Scotland, where antibiotics, anti-inflammatories and antidepressants have been detected in rivers, lochs and coastal waters.
The researchers will work with the University of the Highlands and Islands, the James Hutton Institute, NHS Highland and Heriot-Watt University to reduce the environmental impacts of medicines.
In a statement published on 18 May 2026, seen by The Pharmaceutical Journal, the university said: “Following administration, up to 90% of some medicines may be excreted unchanged, entering wastewater systems that were not designed to remove these compounds.
“Additional pollution occurs when unused or expired medicines are incorrectly flushed down toilets or sinks rather than returned to pharmacies for safe disposal.”
It added that the project will “co-develop practice solutions at multiple points in the pharmaceutical lifestyle”.
This will include risk modelling to identify priority medicines and hotspots; interventions to support sustainable prescribing and disposal; pollution-reduction technologies and shared decision-making tools designed to enable cross-sector action.
Researchers will also use a tool developed by the Scottish One Health Breakthrough Partnership — formed of researchers, public agency and policymakers to address pharmaceutical pollution — which integrates data on pharmaceuticals found in Scottish waters with NHS Scotland prescribing data, helping identify opportunities for intervention.
“The project will generate new evidence, tools, and resources to support coordinated action on pharmaceutical pollution, helping to safeguard environmental and human health while enabling the healthcare and water sectors to meet sustainability goals,” the university said.
Researchers from the university previously worked on a project to develop a framework for an eco-directed medicines formulary in a bid to make medicines prescribing in Scotland more sustainable.
Naoko Arakawa, associate professor at the University of Nottingham’s School of Pharmacy, said: “Considering the complicated issues around eco-toxicity and pharmaceutical pollution, it is great to build on our previous project, and strengthen our multidisciplinary collaboration.”
In 2024, a study found that active pharmaceutical ingredients were found to be present in 52 out of 54 river sites across ten national parks in England.
