How do I Dispose of Expired Medicine?

health wellness

Do you have old or expired medicines languishing in your medicine cabinet? If so, you're not the only one. Just about all of us have items on our shelves that are no longer useful. The problem is we don't know what to with them. Flush them down the toilet? Throw them in the garbage? What is the safest option?

Many people have and will continue to throw expired medication in the garbage. We now know, however, that medicine can actually get into our soil, creating an environmental hazard. Others tend to flush any outdated drugs. This was considered the best method because there was no danger of children and pets accidentally ingesting pills. Flushing medicine also presents an environmental hazard. In fact, traces of certain medications have actually been found in water supplies.

So, if we can't throw away expired medicine and we can't flush them, what can we do to ensure they're properly disposed of?

There are several options. The first is to contact your pharmacy. Many pharmacies now have drug recycling programs in place. Some take it back at any time, others hold periodic drives to collect expired medicine. Either way, they'll take back your expired medication and see to it that they're disposed of in the proper manner. If your pharmacist doesn't take back your old drugs, he or she may have an alternate recommendation. If he or she has no advice, call around. Another pharmacy in your area might take expired medicine.

Another option is to take any old pills and pulverize them. Return them to their child-safe container and place the container inside several thick zip lock plastic bags or a thick plastic container. This can now be tossed into the household trash. There are several problems with this method, however. Many people don't like to waste their bags and containers. Plastic doesn't always degrade so easily if at all. In addition, there's still a chance the medicine can leak out and present a hazard. Besides, one thing we don't need is more landfill.

Since expired medicine is considered hazardous waste, it stands to reason it should be disposed as such. Contact your local hazardous waste facility to see its recommendations. If your city or town has a website, there are probably instructions on how to dispose of hazardous waste. See if medicine is listed. If it is, you can either bring it to the hazardous waste site or set it out for pick up on the designated date. Even if nothing is listed on the website, you can call the facility to either see if this is something it handles, or if it has a recommendation.

Lastly, there are organizations that donate expired medicine to third world countries. Even though your medicine may have expired, it may still be good long past the printed date. (Only professionals can determine this.) Rather than have it waste away in your medicine cabinet, why not donate it where it will be put to good use? An internet search will provide you with such organizations.

If you have medicine sitting around long past its expiration date, please be mindful of all the options you have before you dump it in the trash or flush it down the toilet.

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13
Birth control?, yeah, this should definitely be sent out to third world countries. i think we could use it here too. (and off the topic, birth control should be free) No, instead we all pop out babies and cannot afford them! Do some research and find an organization who will donate them! Other than birth control, people die every day because they cannot afford their medications. Please donate. "One man's trash could save another's life!"

Mary from NJ

- anon51528
12
What are three proper ways to dispose of expired medicine? If you know, write back!
- anon50284
11
Do not take them to your doctor's office. This is not the purpose of a doctor's office.
- anon41929
10
my dad died recently-he had enough prescription drugs to start a pharmacy-I would hate to see them go to waste-does anyone know of an organization that could use them?
- fatboy2003
9
My local pharmacy incinerates unused/expired meds. Definitely try calling them.
- anon30147
8
In my community we are encouraged to take all expired and unused medication to the center for household waste disposal that the city sets up periodically.

Flushing medication down the toilet or putting it into the trash is highly discouraged. The reason for that is that the medication eventually ends up in water supply. The water treatment centers can not filter out all of the medication.

- spasiba
7
If your pharmacy will not dispose of the expired drugs try taking them to your physician's office or local hospital. Medical facilities should have a method for disposing of hazardous medical waste (sharps, blood contaminated waste, etc.) and unless you are disposing of large amounts they probably won’t have a problem adding the expired drugs to the bin since they are shipping it away it anyway.
- anon25269
6
I still do not see a logical solution to this huge problem. When will the pharmaceutical companies be made to come up with a solution? They don't mind selling the stuff to us. They should dispose of unwanted product appropriately.
- anon13568
5
Exporting expired medicines to developing nations is not only unethical, it is illegal. If you wouldn't take the medicine yourself, it should not be given to someone else. It also creates a burden for countries with limited resources that have national formularies and laws against expired meds. Please consider donating to a reputable development agency working with other governments to strengthen their own resources instead. You can find more information about the ethics of donating expired medicine from the AMA Journal of Ethics, December 2006.

- anon9545
4
Group Health Cooperative in Washington State has a medication disposal program. Members can return the medications for disposal at any GHC clinic pharmacy location.
- jeanineers
3
I live in Ketchikan Alaska. I contacted our hospital about how to dispose of some birth control pills which were left behind by a German exchange student who lived with us for a year. They said to flush them down the toilet. However, our sewage treatment is only primary treatment and the effluent is then dumped into the ocean. I am not satisfied with this method. There must be something else I can do. One person suggested burning them. Would this be an appropriate method? Would the residue still contain the hormones?
- sdickinson
2
Labels to some prescription drugs have instructions to dispose of them by flushing them down the toilet. Also, the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) has a list of drugs that they recommend be flushed rather than thrown in the trash. OxyContin and Percocet are among the drugs on the FDA's list. Since both of those are potentially highly addictive drugs, perhaps in these cases, the FDA is saying preventing addiction outweighs environmental concerns associated with flushing drugs down the toilet.
- malena
1
I still have the question I started with. I called our local mega pharmacy chain about returning drugs and they laughed at me.
- anon5424
Editor's reply: Many, although not all, pharmacies take prescription drugs back in order to dispose of them. If your pharmacy doesn't, find a different one. Regardless, they should not laugh at you since it is a common way to dispose of drugs. If they actually laughed, you might want to talk to a supervisor, since that is pretty unprofessional!

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Written by Deborah Ng
Last Modified: 06 November 2009

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