Did you know flushing medication down the toilet or flushing it down the drain can be harmful to the environment? There are safer ways to dispose of the expired medication that is making a mess of your bathroom closet. Keep reading this article to learn how to dispose of unused medications in a way that ensures they don't fall into the wrong hands or contaminate groundwater in your area.
Step
Method 1 of 2: Throwing Most of the Medicines
Step 1. Do not flush most of the medicine
In recent years it has been found that flushing certain drugs containing hormones, antibiotics and other substances can cause groundwater contamination and other adverse effects. Instead of flushing these medications, the safest way to dispose of them is to disguise them and then dispose of them with your trash.
- Read medication packaging and look for instructions for safe disposal.
- There are certain drugs that are considered too potentially harmful if thrown away with the garbage. If the drug is a substance that is strictly prohibited except under the supervision of a doctor that can seriously harm the health of others if they ingest it, the Food and Drug Administration recommends disposing of it by other means.
- If you are not sure whether the drug you want to discard is considered strictly prohibited or not, ask your pharmacist what to do.
Step 2. Mix the medicine with cat litter or coffee grounds
Mixing a pill or liquid with a dirty substance such as cat litter or coffee grounds will reduce the chances of the substance being found and swallowed by a child or pet.
If the pill is large or brightly colored, crush or dissolve the pill before mixing it with other substances
Step 3. Put the mixture in a plastic bag and seal it tightly
This added protection is another way to ensure the drug doesn't fall into the wrong hands.
Step 4. Dispose of the bag along with your trash
Once this medication is completely disguised and sealed in the bag, throw it away with your trash.
Step 5. Remove the label from the empty medicine bottle
Scrape the labels until the print is illegible before you throw the bottle away. This step is taken to protect your identity.
Method 2 of 2: Discarding Potentially Harmful Drugs
Step 1. Determine if your medication is considered potentially harmful
The Food and Drug Administration has published a list of drugs that should not be disposed of with garbage. If anyone were to find and ingest these drugs, he could face serious health consequences.
Step 2. Inquire through community drug disposal programs
Many communities have programs that allow you to collect these unused medicines for safe and proper disposal.
- Visit your local pharmacy to see if they can dispose of your medicines. In some countries, though not all, pharmacies have unused drug disposal programs that they may also implement to dispose of their expired medicines.
- Consider donating your unused medicines to third world countries. There are organizations you can find online. Or, consider contacting your local ER, sometimes they will collect supplies and medicines that can be used for overseas donations.
- Visit your local garbage service - they may have a household waste facility that will burn the drug.
- Contact your local hospital or health center who will place unused medications in a special biohazard container for combustion. All hospitals have this option of action so there is never a need to dispose of or flush unused medication.
Step 3. Flush the medicine if you have no other choice
If your medication is on the FDA's list of drugs that should not be thrown away, and you have no other quick way to get rid of it, flushing may be the best option.
Step 4. Done
Tips
- Most pharmacies in the UK will accept drugs for disposal.
- If you are concerned about your privacy, remove any confidential information from your doctor's old prescription medication container before throwing it away. Take a little time to destroy the labels that describe the drug, your name, your doctor's name, prescription number, your pharmacy's name, and in most cases your health condition. You don't want any information published by someone sorting your trash
- There will be occasional conflicts between the instructions and the guidelines given in this article. Some drugs are accompanied by documents that say they should not be flushed, for example, but BPOM recommends flushing the drug. There is no clear agreement on how to dispose of the drug.
- If you have a medical condition that you don't have insurance for, or hope to uninsured one day, consider keeping your medication instead of throwing it away. That way you will have it for the hard times; many people are experiencing knee and back injuries for which they are not insured, but benefit from prescription painkillers.
