I am the worst about not taking all my prescription medicine. I’ll take all my penicillin, like when I recently had strep throat, but not long ago, I hurt my back and the doctor prescribed muscle relaxers for me. Um, hello? I am the mother of a five year old so I really can’t take anything that’s going to make me sleepy. So, I picked up the prescription and sat it on our medicine shelf.
Every once in a while, I clean the medicine out, but I’m never really sure how to get rid of it. What is the correct way to dispose of old, unwanted medication?
I knew throwing it away in the trash is a bad idea, so I flushed the muscle relaxers. After I did that, my hubby told me I wasn’t supposed to do that. You shouldn’t flush old medication because the sewage wastewater treatment centers can’t handle it. Worse yet, it could end up in the waterways and we certainly don’t want that. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has done research which shows that medication has not only shown up in creatures that live in the water, but also in our own drinking water.
But, there are some drugs that can be flushed, at least according to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). To find a list of those, check out the FDA web site. Some people still may not want to do this the FDA states “that any potential risk to people and the environment from flushing this small, select list of medicines is outweighed by the real possibility of life-threatening risks from accidental ingestion of these medicines.”
With the flushing option out, you can always contact your local pharmacy to see if they have a take-back program for prescription drugs. Don’t worry, they don’t redistribute the pills, but make sure they are properly disposed of, usually through incineration. Don’t try to burn you medication at home as it can release dangerous gases. If the pharmacy doesn’t have such a program, contact the city council’s waste department to see if they will help you get rid of medication.
If all else fails, you can throw your medication into the garbage, but take a few precautions first. Remove the pills from their prescription bottle and put them in an airtight container with something nasty like kitty litter. This will hopefully prevent people from finding and wanting to take the pills.
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