Knightshade^® is a proprietary recycling process for national or regional retail store chains to properly manage expired, damaged, returned or recalled smoking cessation products containing nicotine such as gum, patches, lozenges and e-cigarettes.

Pharmacies, convenience stores, grocers, specialty shops and other stores that sell these items have to consider how to comply with federal and state hazardous waste regulations. These products, when unsalable, typically have to be managed as regulated "acute" hazardous waste.

A store only needs to generate 2.2 pounds (1kg) of waste nicotine-containing products in a month to trigger requirements for federal "Large Quantity Generator" of hazardous waste status. That can cause a number of other expensive requirements to kick in — extra training, formal contingency plans and many other issues that must be addressed to comply.

EPA fines for non-compliance can be significant.