Disposal Medications
We feel the industry that profits from the sales of these products should have the financial responsibility for proper management and disposal - Miriam Gordon
image by: Cumberland Police Department
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What’s the Best Way to Get Rid of Pills You Don’t Use?
Most of our medicine cabinets are filled with prescription medications—some benign, some fairly toxic, some quite expensive. Bottles typically state how to properly store these drugs. But they don’t specify how to safely dispose of unused or outdated pills.
So what’s a patient to do with those orange bottles filled with leftover meds? One expert, Karen Bastianelli, associate professor of pharmacy at the University of Minnesota College of Pharmacy in Duluth, Minn., discusses where those pills can wind up and when flushing them down the toilet is actually an option.
Resources
Discarded drugs: a wasteful and costly problem that requires whole-of-government approaches
Controlling the rising costs of pharmaceuticals, particularly those administered by physicians, has been a top health care priority for policymakers, with recent actions in both Congress and the executive branch. Reducing the waste from discarded drugs is a piece of the broader approach to drug affordability.
Disposal of Unused Medicines: What You Should Know
The best way to dispose of most types* of unused or expired medicines (both prescription and over the counter) is to drop off the medicine at a drug take back site, location, or program immediately.
Health Check: what should you do with your unused medicine?
All health professionals, not just pharmacists, can remind people to return their unwanted medicines so they can be disposed of safely. We all have a role to play to minimise the risks associated with unwanted medicines.
How you should dispose of unused or expired medications
Flushing or throwing away leftover drugs can contaminate waterways, threatening people and wildlife. Here are some safer solutions.
New Option For Getting Rid Of Old Drugs: The Pharmacy
If you have old or unused narcotic painkillers in the medicine cabinet, your main choices for getting rid of them have been to toss them in the trash, flush them down the toilet or drop them off at the police station. But soon it will be possible to take them to the local drugstore or even mail them back.
Pharmacies Don’t Know How to Dispose of Leftover Opioids and Antibiotics
Drug disposal is one of those vexing problems where people generally want to do the right thing, but often simply don’t know how.
Should You Flush Your Drugs Down the Toilet?
The greenest way to get rid of old prescription meds.
Trash Can May Be Greenest Option For Unused Drugs
Left in medicine cabinets, those drugs can end up in the hands of children or others who really shouldn't be taking them. Proper and timely disposal can avert those problems. Flushing or trashing drugs has been the norm for decades, but take-back programs have been springing up at pharmacies and police departments lately.
Unused Pills Raise Issue of Disposal and Risks
It is also unclear whether take-back programs will help. Experts generally agree that the bigger source of pollution is urine and feces containing the remnants of drugs that are ingested, not the unused pills flushed down the toilet.
Who should pay for disposing unused drugs? Pharma says: not us
There are countless unwanted pills and syringes in households across the country, but it takes money to safely dispose of these medicines, and the pharmaceutical industry is trying to avoid picking up the tab.
What’s the Best Way to Get Rid of Pills You Don’t Use?
There are five main disposal options—and flushing them should be your last resort.
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