Hand sanitiser that could fill more than 40,000 bathtubs has been handed over to waste companies, having expired and become a hazard.
NSW and Western Australia have taken steps to dispose of tonnes of disinfectant bottles after supplies outstripped demand towards the end of the COVID-19 pandemic.
HealthShare NSW, which manages government stores of PPE and medical supplies, said it was working with industry to develop sustainable solutions for expired stock.
"This includes awarding contracts to Veolia and Cleanaway to process 7150 tonnes of hand sanitiser into reusable resources," a spokeswoman told AAP.
That quantity of hand sanitiser would fill 42,000 standard bathtubs or three-and-a-half Olympic-sized swimming pools.
HealthShare NSW declined to reveal the value of the contracts, citing legal reasons.
In another deal signed with Cleanaway, WA Health Support Services in September paid $187,000 to collect and dispose of expired hand sanitiser, reportedly 134,580 bottles.
A month earlier, Cleanaway was called in by the NSW education department to remove expired sanitiser, at a cost of $536,000.
"A lot of it has been sitting in schools and would need to be managed under (environmental safety laws) as a hazardous material and we're disposing of it that way," department lead for school infrastructure, Anthony Manning, told parliament this month.
Australia's medicines regulator says sanitisers should be at least 60 per cent alcohol.
"A high alcohol content means it has high flammability so it's a fire risk for storing a lot of it," RMIT Professor of Chemistry Oliver Jones told AAP.
While outside his expertise and not having tried it himself, Prof Jones suggested such a high alcohol content could allow expired sanitiser to be redeployed for general cleaning.
"The alcohol in it is a good solvent so it might be able to be used on floors or surfaces or things that you might use rubbing alcohol for normally," he said.
HealthShare NSW said the whole-of-government warehouse was set up to manage the storage and distribution of "a significant amount" of medical consumables and personal protective equipment for all NSW government agencies including police, health, education and corrections.
The agency, which usually supports back-of-house operations for NSW Health, later came to manage the warehouse.
No more expired hand sanitiser was held by HealthShare NSW.
"We continuously scan the market for new, cost-effective and sustainable stock management solutions," a spokeswoman told AAP.
