[en] An experimental programme to estimate, with a better degree of accuracy, the activity that remains adsorbed in flasks and syringes used in Nuclear Medicine Services for the administration of radionuclides to patients submitted to diagnostic or therapy is been conducted under the coordination of the Radioactive Waste Division of the Brazilian Nuclear Energy Commission, CNEN. The adopted recommendation in Brazil to allow an expedite solid waste management in nuclear medicine facilities, up to the present, is to consider that 2% of the initial activity remains adsorbed in the solid waste, which easily allows the calculation of the storage time to achieve regulatory clearance levels by decay. This research evaluates 17 different kinds of radiopharmaceuticals and three radioisotopes: ^99mTc, ⁶⁷Ga and ²⁰¹Tl. Results obtained by means of a weighting method to estimate the residual mass in flasks show that the ratio of the mass of the liquid that remains in the solid waste to the mass of the empty flask is constant. This suggests that the residual activity depends on the initial activity concentration of radiopharmaceutical contained in each flask, as assumed by the regulatory body. Additionally, results obtained by determining the remaining activity in flasks, shortly after the injection of its radionuclide contents in patients, indicate that an average value for the residual activity of the order of 10% of the initial activity contained in the flasks or syringes should be adopted to determine the decay storage time before the release of solid waste in the urban conventional land fill disposal system. The 'rule of thumb' of 10 half-lives for storage before clearance is also discussed in the present work. (author)