How to Dispose of Old Prescriptions

Do you have old medication in your medicine cabinet. If so, you need to be aware that there are some ways you should not dispose of your old medications.

Things You'll Need

• plastic bag
• coffee ground
• kitty litter
• Sharpie

Instructions

1. NEVER flush your old prescriptions or medicine down the toilet or put it down the sink. There is a great risk of the medication getting into the water supply. This will also harm wildlife. Please, do not do this.

2. Your first option is to contact your pharmacy and find out if they do a "take back" of old medication. Not all pharmacies will do this but it is worth a try to call and find out. If your own pharmacy doesn't do it, call around to see if there is another pharmacy in your area that will. Some Schnuck's pharmacies will take back old medication but not all locations participate in the program. Some pharmacies have a take back program that runs only once or twice per year. If you call and find out this is the case save your medication in a safe place out of the reach of children and take it during one of these collection times.

3. Check your yellow pages for hazardous waste disposal companies and find out if they will take the old medication. There may be a charge for this but if you are willing to do this it is another option for disposal. Hospitals use hazardous waste disposal so you can call your local hospital to see if they can give you the contact information if it is not a local company.

4. Check with local law enforcement. In some states law enforcement will accept old prescriptions and destroy them for you as they would old evidence.

5. If your area provides none of the above options then you can dispose of your medications and prescriptions by taking a plastic bag that will seal and crushing up the medication (wear gloves) and putting it in the bag with used coffee ground or kitty litter. Place this bag in another bag and seal that bag as well. This is not the most environmentally friendly option, however, it will keep kids from stumbling upon your old medication or drug addicts from finding the medication and abusing it. This will also keep animals from ingesting the medication. You can even take an added precaution of duct taping around the bag. Mark out your information on the pill or medicine bottle with a Sharpie marker or remove the label and destroy it.

Tips & Warnings

• Always keep prescriptions and current, away from children and pets.

• Don't forget to mark out the information on prescription bottles.

• Do not try to reuse expired medication.