How Do YOU Dispose of Old Medication?

In the last few years of her life, my Momma took literaly hundreds of different medications. It seemed that every week when she went to the doctors, they changed her meds or doses. Another half-used bottle of prescription medication got shoved to the back of the medicine cabinet.

When Momma died, those medications got tossed in a bag and hidden in the back of my sister’s closet. Disposing of them was just one more painful grieving process we wanted to avoid.

Four years later, my sister finally has decided to face the task. She pulled those prescription medicines out and asked me, “How do I get rid of them?”

Good question!

I went to Google for some answers and discovered that there IS no easy answer of how to dispose of them without harming the environment.

A long time ago, we were told to flush unused medicines down the toilet, to keep kids, pets, and our local drug addicts from getting into them. But, these days we know that flushing them contaminates the water supply. One article that I read said that scientists suspect that medications dumped in the water supply caused a mutation of fish in the Potomac River near Washington, D.C. Fish were found that had both male and female characteristics!

Now, that might ensure that the fish would never be “lonely,” but it’s probably not a “good” thing. Flushing old medication down the toilet is NOT a good option.

Some articles suggested grinding up the pills, and putting them back in their original containers (without the label on it), wrapping them, and tossing them in the trash. Other articles suggested grinding the pills, mixing them with water, then mixing them with cat litter or pet waste, and then disposing of them in the trash. With either of those methods, it seems to me, the chemicals are eventually going to leach into the soil. Our poor Environment!

What to do? I checked with the City of Denton’s hazardous waste disposal unit. They have options for getting rid of old cleaning solutions, and used oil, and other potentially hazardous substances, but they don’t pick up “pharmaceuticals.”

This morning, I marched into my local pharmacy and asked the pharmacist what to do. I figured she would know. Right?

Wrong!

She gave me the same answers I had already heard. Reluctantly, she suggested that we could bring them to the pharmacy, and they would send them to the company that disposes of their expired medications. But, she indicated that pharmacies would prefer you not do that, because then they have to deal with the problem.

So, I’m right back to the original quandary — what do you DO with old medication?

When Google doesn’t know, the city can’t tell me, and my pharmacist is clueless … it’s time to ask y’all for suggestions. Does anybody know?

Admittedly, most folks won’t be disposing of a jillion little pills at a time, but as spring cleaning rolls around, hopefully people will be ditching expired medications (and old lotions and potions). What do you do with old pills? Old Pepto Bismol? Expired Vicks Vapo Rub (does it ever expire?)?

You tell me, and I hope one of you knows an answer. I’d hate to think of all the mutated fish that will be showing up in Lake Texoma if we don’t find an answer soon!

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1. Fate
2. Water
3. Throw Away Your “Old” Lotions!!
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5. Coffee Keeps Me Perking

Tagged as: environment, expired medication