How can one properly dispose of old prescriptions that you haven't used?

[Mind_your_head]

After cleaning out my bathroom cabinets, I found several old medications that had never been used/used up. Knowing that pharmaceuticals in our water systems and the ground is a growing problem, I didn't want to just "flush them" or throw them in the garbage.

So I took them to my local pharmacy figuring that they had some sort of system for proper disposal. Nope. The clerk told me to "flush them". Then the pharmacist piped up and said, "no, you shouldn't really do that", but he was at a loss to tell how to properly dispose of them and could only suggest taking them to the local fire department (around here you can take your old oil, household chemicals, etc. for disposal to any local fire department) but he wasn't really sure that they would accept them.

I've never really thought about this 'problem' before, nor surprisingly had this particular pharmacist, but it's probably worth thinking about. I know my ex has some very very potent drugs sitting around his house left over from when his mom was dying of cancer. He doesn't know what to do with those either.

P.S. I know that one should always use their prescriptions to the end, but sometimes there are legitimate reasons why that doesn't happen; bad reaction to the medication for one, or in the case of my ex, his mom passed away and he was left with the 'extra', etc.

[CC]

1. Here you can take them to the landfill.

Keep them separate and tell some one there what they are. They have a separate area for medical waste so it can be incinerated properly.

[roguevalley]

45. incinerate them. don't pour them down the drain. our fish are mellow enough.

:+

[librechik]

2. return them to the pharmacist--some states have programs to recycle meds

to folks who can't afford them

http://alum.mit.edu/ne/whatmatters/200508/index.html

(an article about the concept)

About 17 states either do this already or are trying to so it this year

[Mind_your_head]

6. If you read my entire post, I tried that

the pharmacist wouldn't/couldn't take them, nor could he recommend how to dispose of them properly.

[librechik]

15. what I would do then (but I'm an evil prankster from way back)

is send them to my state legislator and ask him/ her to dispose of them for me, (enclosing a copy of some of the successful state recycling legislation--)

I'm pretty worried about polluting our landfills.

[Booster]

16. I don't know where you live, but when a good friend died of

cancer the hospice nurse told us we HAD to put the meds (there was a lot) in the garbage. I refused to do that so I checked around with a couple of pharmacies and finally found one that has a program where they take the drugs to Africa once a year. I also Googled the question and found places online that do the same thing, although I would take special care to remove all identifying information. Please do not flush them down the toilet or put them in the garbage, for the sake of all of us who drink water. And I love the fact that you thought about and cared enough to ask the question.

[Taverner]

3. Good question

I would like to know myself.

I suppose you could take them to a toxic waste center.

[Raven]

4. Good question! Definately don't flush them or put them in the regular dump.

I guess you could treat them like other hazardous waste and find out about the special collections for that stuff. I think I read recently something about traces of drugs being found in public water supplies.

[Speck Tater]

5. Info on recycling meds

When my aunt passed away we recycled all her meds this way

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23983062/

[Mind_your_head]

12. Thanks - that's a great idea/program, but I don't think we have that here in Illinois

We probably should though.

[AlinPA]

7. Don't flush them. They end up in ground water and rivers and cause horrendous

problems with fish. The worst is estrogens. Water treatments systems do not remove these chemicals. Have to run now, but this link to U. Pitt might help.

http://www.chec.pitt.edu/mambo/index.php?option=com_content&task=category§ionid=4&id=71&Itemid=46

[ildemo]

42. Like the normal stuff that we flush down

the toilet is healthful?

Sheesh. Flush it all.

[Webster Green]

8. Send me the potent painkillers..

I'll put them to good use :P

[Mind_your_head]

11. LOL

and everyone should send any unused anti-psychotics over to GD-P too. :silly:

[blondeatlast]

38. Preferably in a semi-trailer... nt

[kestrel91316]

9. Here's what I do with my expired drugs:

Liquids - pour onto clean cat litter, bag it up tight, and dispose in the trash. I put the clean cat litter in the bottom of a plastic bag BEFORE pouring the liquid in.

Pills - crush well, dissolve in small amount of water (keep OUT OF THE REACH OF CHILDREN AND PETS), then dispose as for liquids.

EVERYTHING goes in the landfill now, bagged and double bagged. NOTHING whatsoever goes down the drain. I cringe to think how many various drugs I have poured down the drain in the 17 years running this vet hospital. But now we know better and don't do anything to needlessly contribute to the water contamination issue.

[bain_sidhe]

14. What about expired anti-biotic

I just finished an anti-biotic course (amoxi) for my cat, and had a little left over. It's still sitting in my fridge, 'cause I don't know how to dispose of it! (It says "discard after 14 days" but doesn't say *how* to discard.

[kestrel91316]

21. Once it is expired, amoxidrops should be squirted onto cat litter

and bagged well and put in the trash. We DEFINITELY don't want antibiotics of any kind out loose in the environment where they can kill good bugs willy-nilly and contribute to resistance problems in bad bugs.

It's bad enough that we pee antibiotic residue into the water and flush. That's unavoidable. We don't want to do anything to make the problem worse than it is...........

[bain_sidhe]

24. Thanks! will do. n/t

[Mind_your_head]

27. Doesn't the kitty litter method just put the problem off

for a later date though? I know those plastic bags decompose at a horrendously s l o w rate, but they do decompose eventually AND they often get ripped open on the way to and at the landfill.

Would incineration be a suitable answer? :shrug:

[kestrel91316]

37. Long before the bag deteriorates, the amoxi or whatever will have broken down.

Antibiotics and other drugs HAVE an expiration date because they break down naturally and gradually cease to be what they were. We like for that process to happen in a landfill rather than in someone's water supply. In a landfill, most chemicals pretty much stay put. Especially here in LA, where it only rains about 6 days a year, lol.

[Hekate]

26. Thank you Kestrel. That's very helpful. I was told to toss them in their original containers now...

...so that it would take longer for them to leach out into the landfill, but that really just puts the problem off for another year -- not to mention going right back to where we started when it comes to keeping drugs out of our trash and presumably out of the hands of trash-pickers.

At the end of this year I am going to have to dump a bottle of Vicoden left over from my shoulder surgery last year. I don't know why they gave me so much -- the surgery was arthroscopic, and fortunately I didn't need much in the way of painkillers afterward. I'm glad to know about the kitty litter method.

Now if we could just get all the hormones out of the environment that we've excreted in our urine.....

Hekate

[tblue37]

40. What a coincidence! I also use cat litter to dispose of such things.

But I use the used cat litter, to make sure that no living thing is tempted to get into whatever I have disposed of. For example, on th epackage of Fentany patches you are advised to fold the used one in half and flush it. That struck me as insane. Fentanyl is one of those powerful opioid painkillers they use for cancer (I was on it for ruptured discs, though). I came up with the catlitter solution when I needed a way to dispose of my used patches without risking polluting the water. I dip wet cat litter from the box into an empty cat litter bag, squoosh* it up, and then double bag it and send it to the land fill.

[Perry Logan]

10. I heard a guy say to mix it with something unpalatable (i.e., coffee grounds) and trash it.

[Duer 157099]

13. worms love coffee grounds

pretty soon we'll have a bunch of doped up worms, lol

[Yavapai]

18. Put my old Viagra in coffee grounds and spread them on the lawn.

Now it is much easier to get fishing worms...

[Duer 157099]

19. LOL, good one

(hey I wonder if that really would work ... you might be on to something there... )

:hi:

[rasputin1952]

35. No...when you try to put the worms on a hook, they don't bend

so easily...:evilgrin:

[CTyankee]

50. Who has "old Viagra"?

Oh, maybe I shouldn't ask...

[tblue37]

41. Yep--that is why I use USED kitty litter. n/t

[truedelphi]

17. Thank you for asking this. And thanks to everyone who offered remedies n/t

[pansypoo53219]

20. i decided on composting

have happy worms. or dead ones.

[crimsonblue]

22. in... my belly!

[warren pease]

23. I always keep the opiates and take the rest to the local high school...

...where I sell them for a small fortune as a new form of ecstasy. Of course, that's only good one time per school, but fortunately there's quite a few of them in and around Portland so I'm set for awhile.

Who says entrepreneurs are a dying breed? I've learned all kinds of great hustles to survive and thrive in the Bushean economy -- most of them highly illegal and probably dangerous to the hustlees -- but so what? The Junta has taught me that looking out for number one is the only thing that really makes sense anymore, and I'm a pretty quick study.

Of course, the most important thing I've learned in observing the Bushies closely for more than seven years is that morality is for suckers, a conscience is a pain in the ass, and the only good idealist is in prison or dead.

Or as they like to say on that famous Texas movie set, if you ain't a sociopath, you ain't shit.

Just so.


Exx, anyone?

wp

[southern_belle]

25. mix them with cat litter (used preferably) and

throw them in a smaller bag, then throw the whole thing in a bigger garbage bag. I think I saw that advertized on tv (or somewhere???) a while back. Hope this helps.

[Petrushka]

28. Take them to your primary-care physician, as I did after my husband died last November. (eom)

[LeftyMom]

29. Set them someplace visible and hire a local teenager to do a job in your house

:shrug:

[Midlodemocrat]

30. They need to go into the landfill, NOT down the drain.

Wrap them in newspaper or put the liquids in something like kitty litter and bag them up in several lunch sized paper bags. NOT plastic bags as was advocated on a TV spot I saw.

[Fox Mulder]

31. Just leave the meds in the bottle and throw them away.

I read that was the best solution. :shrug:

[fight4my3sons]

32. our firehouse has a medication collection day

for expired meds and things that are opened, but you don't want to, or should not throw in the garbage. I think you can call the town hall or the fire dept to find out when they do it. I live in a small town though.

[rasputin1952]

33. Some meds, especially some anti-virals and antibiotics can

become very toxic after a short time after their expiration dates. Do Not use!. Many others, pain relievers and some steroids can still be pretty potent for a long period of time.

If you feel particularly disposed, you can incinerate them. Most areas have a few times a year when they collect toxic materials, and try another pharmacy...virtually every pharmacy has safe ways of disposing outdated meds, (although the FDA recommends "flushing", (which I think is absurd, especially if large quantities, like from a pharmacy are involved). Antibiotics that survive the wastewater treatment plant cause a serious problem, and many municipalities are seeing an increase in notable traces of some serious drugs.

If you decide to incinerate, don't incinerate the plastic bottles, and don't toss different meds into the fire at the same time...don't breathe the smoke, and make sure you force-feed air into the flames w/a blower of some sort to increase the temp and keep airborne elements to a minimum.

PS...send all Scheduled meds to me...GDP has become a little too wild...:rofl:

[iamthebandfanman]

34. give them to me ?oh...

and i can almost(ALMOST) guarantee someone will take them if they see them if you throw them away. i knew a guy who found some lortabs in a trashbag(he worked for my local city and hadta do trash pick up for a while). he told me the guys who did it regularly often found narcotics in the garbage.

[Beaverhausen]

36. mix them with the dirty cat litter- if you have some around, that is

i think the ammonia in the litter from the pee breaks the meds down. I heard this somewhere...

[midnight]

39. Plano, Texas had the highest suicide rate in the country

about seven years ago. I don't know who has it now, but an interesting fact was that an anti-depressant drug was recovered from the waste and sewage treatment plant at extremely high levels.

[canucksawbones]

43. off to your doctor

My patients bring them to my office and I sispose of them with biohazrd wastes (needles, bloody gauze, etc)

[OneBlueSky]

44. well . . . next time you brew up some mulligatawny soup . . . oh, never mind . . . n/t

[eridani]

46. WA state has the following program--

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=184x12453

[Ikonoklast]

47. There is a non-profit organization that handles this

It's run by Cindy McCain.

Give her a call. She'll take them off your hands.

[backscatter712]

48. Did I hear right that just _using_ some drugs can pollute the environment.

You take the drugs, they go through your system and do their thing, then they get metabolized, go through your kidneys, and you pee them out.

When you take a pee and flush the toilet, congratulations, you just added toxic chemicals to the environment, and your friendly local sewage treatment plant will have a chemistry problem they have to address during treatment before they can consider the water to be safe enough to release back into the environment.

[dorkulon]

49. Give them to a teenager.

They'll know what to do. :headbang: