How to Safely Dispose of Unused Medications

For many years, folks have gathered their unused medications and disposed of them by throwing them in the trash or flushing them down the toilet. These seemed like safe ways to dispose of the medications. However, we now know that neither of these are good options.

There are two major concerns when it comes to the disposal of medications:

• The environment. Medications that are thrown out and sent to landfills can be released into the environment through the landfill liquid that is collected and sent to wastewater treatment plants. Medications that are flushed down toilets go straight to wastewater treatment plants (unless a home has a septic tank, in which case the drugs can leach into the ground and seep into the ground water). Regardless of the method of disposal, the drugs end up in the water around us because wastewater treatment plants are not designed to remove medicines. In fact, researchers have found over 100 different medications in lakes, rivers, reservoirs, streams, and underwater aquifers across the US and around the world (source). This is significant because these drugs have a negative impact on wildlife and can potentially hurt humans when they get in our sources of drinking water.
• Accidental or intentional ingestion by others. When we store unused medications in our homes or dispose of them in the garbage, it increases the chance that the medications will harm someone around us. There are a few different ways this can happen:
  • Children or pets could accidentally ingest the medications
  • A teenager or adult could intentionally abuse the medications
  • You or a family member could accidentally take the wrong medicine, take too much of the same medicine, or use a medicine that is too old to work well

Thankfully, it’s very easy to dispose of medications safely.

Safe disposal of medications

There are three ways to safely dispose of unused medications. One is a much better option than the others, so we’ll begin with this method.

Utilize a drug take-back program

Drug take-back programs are carefully regulated programs that collect and safely dispose of unused medications. Some of these are ongoing and some of these occur periodically. Here’s how to find a drug take-back option in your community:

• Visit the DEA’s Take Back Day website to determine when the next Take Back Day will be held. On Take Back Days, which are usually held twice each year, the DEA partners with local groups to provide medication collection sites. You drive up, drop your meds in a collection bin, and go on your way. It’s that simple!
• Use the DEA’s app to locate permanent collection facilities in your area. Most areas have public disposal locations available all year round. These are often located in retail pharmacies, hospitals, or law enforcement facilities. Most of these utilize drop boxes similar to those you drop your mail in at the post office. You simply drop in your medications and you’re done.
• Check with local pharmacies to see if they are collection facilities. Many pharmacies, including a number of those owned by Walgreens and CVS, have drop boxes where unused medications are collected.

If you are unable to find a take-back option using one of these approaches, then call your city or county government’s household trash and recycling service and ask if a drug take-back program is available in your community. Some municipalities hold hazardous waste collection days where prescription and over-the-counter drugs are collected at a central location for safe disposal.

Flush the drugs down the toilet

As I noted earlier, it is unwise to flush unused medications down the toilet. However, there are a small number of medicines that come with specific directions to immediately flush them down the toilet when they are no longer needed if a take-back option is not readily available (you can see a list of these medications here). In other words, if there is a pharmacy or other facility in your community that is a take-back location, then you should utilize this. If there are no take-back facilities in your area, then these medications are supposed to be flushed. The reason for this is that these medications (e.g., morphine, fentanyl, methadone) are so addictive and have such a high potential for abuse that experts believe the harm to the environment from flushing them is less serious than the consequences of the drugs being accidentally or intentionally misused. If a medication is not on this list, then don’t flush it down the toilet!        

Throw the medications away

If no drug take-back program is available to you and the labels on your drugs don’t indicate they should be flushed, then you will need to throw your unused medications away. The safest way to do this is to use a drug deactivation system, such as that available from Deterra. Deterra is a proprietary product that is scientifically proven to deactivate drugs. It is available in small, medium, and large pouches. You simply place your pills, patches, or liquid medications in a pouch, add water, seal the pouch, and place it in your normal trash. There is no concern about these going to landfills because the drugs are now deactivated and the pouches are made of environmentally sound materials.

If you are unable to get these pouches, then you will need to use the following process to throw away medications (please note that this is the least desirable approach for disposing of unused drugs):

Final thoughts

Whether the medications are expired or no longer needed, most of us have some unused medications in our homes. Thus, we should be able to put this information to good use! It may take a little time and effort to dispose of them properly, but it is worth it if we can keep our loved ones safe and protect the environment.

How do you usually dispose of unused medications? Were you aware of these recommendations?