Rugby primary care group is to encourage patients not to order repeat medicines that they do not need in an attempt to cut wastage.
Across Warwickshire, medicines worth £800,000 are returned to pharmacies and destroyed every year.
The campaign makes use of the guinea pig mascot of the Gilbert sports equipment company which makes rugby balls. Gilbert is shown kicking a medicine capsule instead of a rugby ball.
"People do not understand that returned medicines have to be destroyed," Mrs Caroline Galloway (prescribing support pharmacist, Rugby PCG) told The Journal on April 11. "It is like kicking money into touch."
The campaign leaflet asks people not to order repeat medicines unnecessarily and to make sure that they tell their general medical practitioners when they stop taking a medicine. Patients are also being reminded to make sure that they keep appointments when they are asked to attend for medication review.
Alongside the public campaign, the PCG is asking its member surgeries to review their practices surrounding compliance and medication review.