How to Dispose of Expired Medications

Are you planning to clean out your medicine cabinet as part of your spring cleaning this year? If so, you may want to consider how to dispose of medications. It used to be thought that flushing expired medications down the toilet was an acceptable way to dispose of them. Unfortunately, this is no longer the case since traces of prescription and nonprescription medications have shown up not only in the water supply but also in local bodies of water. This suggests that these medications are not being adequately removed from the water supply during the water treatment process which occurs before the water is released into rivers and lakes. Although the quantities of these medications in the general water supply is small, it’s feared that even these minute quantities could have a major impact on wildlife. The problem of medicines contaminating the water supply seems to be widespread since meds have been found in the drinking water of twenty-four major metropolitan areas.

If disposal of medication in the toilet isn’t a safe option, how should you dispose of medications without risking environmental contamination? The safest means of disposal is to remove the medications from their bottles and mix them with an unappealing substance such as coffee grounds. After thoroughly mixing, place them in a sealed bag and dispose of them in a trashcan. By mixing the medications with coffee grounds, you make them less likely to be ingested by pets or other animals that might raid your garbage can. Be sure to destroy the label that you removed from the prescription bottle. There are certain medications that are deemed safe to flush down the toilet and they will say so on the package insert included with the medication.

A final option for disposal of medication is to use the services of a pharmaceutical take-back program that allow you to bring in your old meds to a designated site where they can be safely disposed of. Inquire in your local area as to the availability of these programs.

When you dispose of medications properly, you no only protect wildlife and the environment, you’re also taking steps to reduce the incidence of drug resistance that’s such a public health problem. When flushed medications, particularly antibiotics, get into the water supply, the potential for development of antibiotic resistant infections goes up, creating problems for everyone. Proper disposal of medication should always be a priority and careful consideration should be given to how it’s carried out. Don’t put your health or the health of the environment at risk by flushing unused medications down the toilet.

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