Getting rid of old medicine

[lightman]

The Wife and I are unloading all of the kitchen cabinets for a remodel thats scheduled to start next week. In the process we have found some old prescription medicine. Do any of you have any experience getting rid of prescription medicine?

I understand that its a No No to flush it down the drain. I don't understand exactly why but I want to be legal and proper. I also don't want to harm the environment.

None of this is pain killers or muscle relaxers or such but it is prescription. Any help is appreciated. Thanks!

[The Governor]

Dissolve in old coffee grounds and put in trash.

[Markopolo]

Burn barrel.??

[lefty o]

lots of cityhalls/police dept or sheriffs offices have drop boxes for getting rid of old prescriptions.

[Traffer]

I believe you can take it to a pharmacy or a doctors office. They have stuff to dissolve it. You could call a pharmacy ...they would tell you what to do.

[Hickory]

Burn them with a brush burner.

[Butler Ford]

I agree with turning them to a medical facility or pharmacy. Call your sheriffs office, they'll know where/how to dispose of it locally.

[starmac]

What environmental harm is it going to do with just putting it in the trash? I would not want to take any medicine that is going to harm the earth.

[lightman]

What environmental harm is it going to do with just putting it in the trash? I would not want to take any medicine that is going to harm the earth.

I gotta agree with you but I understand that its a No No.

Thanks for the suggestions everyone. I'll check with the PD and the local Pharmacy. We know the Pharmacist personally. Probably going to wait until we get completely finish cleaning out everything.

I went through 55 years of my 61 year life before having a regular medicine that I took everyday. My Wife, on the other hand has been on various things for a long while. I didn't realize that we had so much stuff!

[daloper]

We took some to the State Police building when we moved my in-laws into assisted living. They had a barrel with a one way top so you could put the m in but not get them out.

[Bazoo]

Walgreens will dispose of it for you. I think cvs will too. At my walgreens there is a disposal box in the lobby of the pharmacy part. The uses cvs and I believe they take it, but I'm not sure if they have a drop box.

[Traffer]

This may be helpful: https://www.fda.gov/Drugs/ResourcesForYou/Consumers/BuyingUsingMedicineSafely/EnsuringSafeUseofMedicine/SafeDisposalofMedicines/ucm186187.htm

[Sig556r]

I understand that its a No No to flush it down the drain. I don't understand exactly why but I want to be legal and proper. I also don't want to harm the environment.


You mean those junkies in the movies flushing their stuff in the toilet to avoid incriminating evidence ain't real?

[salpal48]

Trash

[T_McD]

Dissolve in old coffee grounds and put in trash.

This^. Burn barrel also a good idea.

[Shawlerbrook]

Yes, check with your local medical facilities, pharmacies or even your local solid waste disposal agency. Some have drop boxes, some have special days or events. For us who live in rural areas and depend on groundwater this is very important.

[Hossfly]

All state police take it around here.

[country gent]

One of the problems isn't it hurt the earth but it may kill off the bacteria needed in septic and leach fields. A lot of places may take it for proper disposal. Police dept., Pharmacies, Doctors offices, Hospitals, urgent care centers. Call your county offices and ask there the will guide you to the right place.

[Hannibal]

Depending upon where you are, some municipalities recycle the water and have trace amounts of drugs in the water supply.

I think So Cal used to have a big problem with this. Might have figured out a solution by now . . . (?)

[JSnover]

Even if your trash goes to an incinerator there's no guarantee of public safety. A power plant near me was raided last year after it was discovered that some employees were 'liberating' meds and selling them back to street dealers.

[JBinMN]

lots of cityhalls/police dept or sheriffs offices have drop boxes for getting rid of old prescriptions.

This is the way I was told long ago to deal with it. Or, you could likely take it to a clinic or hospital.

[dbosman]

https://nabp.pharmacy/initiatives/awarxe/drug-disposal-locator/

[Tom W.]

Depending upon where you are, some municipalities recycle the water and have trace amounts of drugs in the water supply.

I think So Cal used to have a big problem with this. Might have figured out a solution by now . . . (?)


With the politicians that are there, you gotta be kidding!

[Hannibal]

With the politicians that are there, you gotta be kidding!

I know, right? Kinda explains a few things . . . .

[RED BEAR]

Are you kidding throw it in trash.

[Minerat]

I got a little packet of this blue powder from the pharmacy with my pain med for a dental implant and was told to dump it in the bottle with the left over meds and fill with water. Once it set then it was safe to throw it away. It worked, got rid of 6 of those nasty suckers.

[lightman]

Traffer, Thanks for that link. It didn't pop up on my search or I just plain over looked it. That was an interesting read. Seems like the advice to not flush it may have been a myth. I think we are going to take it to the pharmacy.

Thanks for all of the ideas everyone.

[NyFirefighter357]

I agree with turning them to a medical facility or pharmacy. Call your sheriffs office, they'll know where/how to dispose of it locally.

This is the answer, because of the flushing of medicines and the down the toilet either to dispose of or through urine the ground water has been contaminated with meds. Though out the U.S.
"Pharmaceutical compounds were detected at low concentrations in 2.3% of 1231 samples of groundwater (median depth to top of screened interval in wells = 61 m) used for public drinking-water supply in California."

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048969711005778

https://www.epa.gov/water-research/risks-aquatic-organisms-posed-human-pharmaceutical-use

[wch]

Pharmacies will dispose of old medications for you.

[Wag]

After my late wife passed away, I asked the hospice nurses what to do with her leftover meds. They told me to put them in a plastic bottle and put some bleach in it to render it unusable. Seemed to work well, didn't take a lot of bleach, either.

Then, they all went into the curbside trash barrel.

--Wag--

[Chihuahua Floyd]

Dumping meds down the drain only sends diluted meds to the next town down stream if you are on a municipal sewer system.
Wastewater Treatment plants are not and can not be designed to removed meds from the waste stream. And yes some meds can interfere with the treatment process if in sufficient strength.
Water Treatment plants can not removed meds from source water either, so whatever the town upstream dumps into the sewer gets into your drinking water.
This does not even address the over medication most people take and pass with urine.
CF

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

This is the answer, because of the flushing of medicines and the down the toilet either to dispose of or through urine the ground water has been contaminated with meds. Though out the U.S.
"Pharmaceutical compounds were detected at low concentrations in 2.3% of 1231 samples of groundwater (median depth to top of screened interval in wells = 61 m) used for public drinking-water supply in California."

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048969711005778

https://www.epa.gov/water-research/risks-aquatic-organisms-posed-human-pharmaceutical-use


Dumping meds down the drain only sends diluted meds to the next town down stream if you are on a municipal sewer system.
Wastewater Treatment plants are not and can not be designed to removed meds from the waste stream. And yes some meds can interfere with the treatment process if in sufficient strength.
Water Treatment plants can not removed meds from source water either, so whatever the town upstream dumps into the sewer gets into your drinking water.
This does not even address the over medication most people take and pass with urine.
CF

I agree with NOT flushing them into the City's sanitary sewer.

While our local Sheriff Dept will dispose them for me, I have thrown them in the trash (after making them unusable).

[tomme boy]

Take them to the local Police station. You don't want the chemicals in the water supply.

[lead-1]

As mentioned above our county sheriff's department has a drop box at the local police station.

[Lloyd Smale]

I flush them. It would take a wheel barrow full of anti biotics to kill all the bacteria in my septic tank let alone a towns waste treatment plant and I flush maybe a 1/3 of a bottle of pills not 300. I don't understand it getting from the water treatement plant into the next towns drinking water either. Most of them dump in a deep water well and buy then time your couple bottles of pills make the trip in the water line to the treatment plant mix in with all the other waste there and are sent into the ground and mixed with all the ground water and then pumped up again into the city water system and treated again that the absolute minute amounts cant even be measured. Much to do about nothing. Im sure theres a liberal somewhere that will claim your polluting the air burning them too.
Dumping meds down the drain only sends diluted meds to the next town down stream if you are on a municipal sewer system.
Wastewater Treatment plants are not and can not be designed to removed meds from the waste stream. And yes some meds can interfere with the treatment process if in sufficient strength.
Water Treatment plants can not removed meds from source water either, so whatever the town upstream dumps into the sewer gets into your drinking water.
This does not even address the over medication most people take and pass with urine.
CF

[Wag]

I flush them. It would take a wheel barrow full of anti biotics to kill all the bacteria in my septic tank let alone a towns waste treatment plant and I flush maybe a 1/3 of a bottle of pills not 300. I don't understand it getting from the water treatement plant into the next towns drinking water either. Most of them dump in a deep water well and buy then time your couple bottles of pills make the trip in the water line to the treatment plant mix in with all the other waste there and are sent into the ground and mixed with all the ground water and then pumped up again into the city water system and treated again that the absolute minute amounts cant even be measured. Much to do about nothing. Im sure theres a liberal somewhere that will claim your polluting the air burning them too.

If you don't understand it, then why do it? Why not take the least risky road?

--Wag--

[Tom W.]

When my late wife's mother died the Hospice nurses went with me into the bathroom and counted all of the pills, wrote it down in duplicate, and away they went into my septic tank......

[Chihuahua Floyd]

Wastewater treatment plants dump into a river not underground, mostly the same river they draw the drinking water from. you are right that one person don't make a difference, but how many millions of people live upstream of someplace like LA or San Francisco.

When my MIL died, Hospice dumped all the meds into the trash, mostly liquid morphine. just dumped it into paper towels and straight into the trash.

CF

[bob208]

Ed McGovern used to shoot aspirin out of the air. so you have aerial targets.

[EDG]

If you take the meds it or its metabolites are excreted in your urine and feces. Are you going to worry about all the meds you ingest too? Of course not.

You are also not going to worry about the insecticides, herbicides, fertilizers, manure from huge feed lots, dairies, farms and ranches, septic system drain fields, parking lot and street run off. In some towns the local fish are contaminated with chlordane which was once used to treat homes for termites.
Naturally you do not want to think of the first flush run off of a rain storm.
In my town it was once estimated that the first flush of a rain storm put 50,000 lbs of dog dump in the local lake - a lake that is used for fishing and swimming. The outlet of the lake is the Colorado River.

[mold maker]

Regardless of it's original form or purpose, stuff always runs downhill. Even plastic drinking straws.

[Lloyd Smale]

you think ever waste water plant is built by a river? We live right on lake superior. the largest fresh water body in the Us and the city water comes from a deep well. As does just about everyone elses. You hit it right on the head when you said the concern is in places like LA and San Francisco.
Wastewater treatment plants dump into a river not underground, mostly the same river they draw the drinking water from. you are right that one person don't make a difference, but how many millions of people live upstream of someplace like LA or San Francisco.

When my MIL died, Hospice dumped all the meds into the trash, mostly liquid morphine. just dumped it into paper towels and straight into the trash.

CF

[Lloyd Smale]

better buy an electric car and quit heating your house too. Why risk global warming:groner:
If you don't understand it, then why do it? Why not take the least risky road?

--Wag--

[Lloyd Smale]

yup burn it it goes in the air or to dust on the ground just waiting for the rain to put it in the same place your toilet did. Eat it and take a pee and it goes in the same place too. You think those disposal places have transporters like on star trek that send it to another universe or they store them in barrels with nucellar waste. It isn't so much environmental issues they have disposal places for as much as it is keep drugs out of someone hands who doesn't medically need them..
Regardless of it's original form or purpose, stuff always runs downhill. Even plastic drinking straws.

[bob208]

put it baggies nd take downtown and sell to the dopers.

[lightman]

put it baggies nd take downtown and sell to the dopers.

My Wife shot that idea down!:-P

[JSnover]

I'm ok with burning most anything. Get it to a high enough temperature and most of the toxins are broken down. Dump it into your septic system if you want, it probably won't find it's way back to your well or someone else's. Maybe. You might have to get it pumped out more often, though.

[Lloyd Smale]

had to chuckle. back when I took oxy I was prescribed ALOT of it. At least twice what I used but with the fear of doctors not wanting to prescribe more I figured id shut my mouth in case I ever did need more id have it. I had about 300 5mg tabs I flushed down the toilet one day. A couple days later there was one of those alaksan cop shows on and they said that dealers got 10 bucks a crack for them. Told my wife I flushed a free trip to Alaska down the pooper. If I could pump the septic tank and get them all back I probably could have went a free brown bear hunt.
My Wife shot that idea down!:-P

[snowwolfe]

Feed it to the fish, ducks, or geese. Maybe you can start a new super species that will eat lefties.

[JSnover]

Feed it to the fish, ducks, or geese. Maybe you can start a new super species that will eat lefties.
Either that or they'd be so easygoing and lethargic they'd be super-easy to catch!
;)

[Lloyd Smale]

tell you a comical story. Back when I was a kid dad has some real characters that came to camp. Mostly combat pilots from the air force base and a couple bar owners from town. They did a lot of violating. Probably shot more deer drunk out the window of camp while playing poker then they did actually hunting. Had one air force guy come to camp on day with some narcotics he got after back surgery. they decided they would put them in apples and put those apples on the bait pile and the next day theyd have some passed out deer. Even used rubber gloves to put them in. Well the deer ate every apple that night except the ones they put pills in.