What's the correct way to dispose of unused prescription drugs?

[jilln]

I could swear I read somewhere that you're NOT supposed to flush it down the toilet - that's how it gets into the water system and that's why everyone in this country is currently on Prozac - but when I called a local pharmacy to ask, that's what they told me to do.

Anyone know?

[Lars39]

1. I crush 'em and put them in the garbage.

[Omphaloskepsis]

2. I put them in my cats food..

Ever seen a cat on Levitra... Golden..

[idgiehkt]

3. how much ya want?

just kidding. I have no idea.

[Richard Steele]

4. You have a good friend like me take them off your hands?

At least then you won't worry that they'll be flushed
down a toilet.

[jobycom]

7. Maybe eventually... nt

[itsmesgd]

5. craigslist?

you got any good stuff? kidding

[montanto]

6. I usually eat them.

[Zuiderelle]

8. By that logic we'd all be addicted to a whole lot worse stuff than Prozac.

ick

[rug]

9. Rev. Jim.

[jilln]

15. Of all the "unhelpful" answers...

this is the best ;-)

[JVS]

10. Are we really all on prozac?

[jilln]

16. There is evidence

that it is in rivers and lakes, and therefore most likely in our water. Along with 60+ other chemicals that shouldn't be there.

[Der Blaue Engel]

58. I don't want to know that things flushed down the toilet

end up in my drinking water. I don't want to know that! :cry: :puke: :scared:

[LanternWaste]

11. A Pharm. friend-in-law stated emphatically

A Pharm. friend-in-law stated emphatically that before flushing them, swish them around in a cup of highly acidic liquid, like Coke or somesuch.

[jilln]

17. Interesting, but if homeland security shows up

because my vinegar + pain relievers explode, I'm sending them to you ;-)

[LanternWaste]

35. And you're on my Christmas Card list too, sweetie.

And you're on my Christmas Card list too, sweetie.

[zanne]

12. Give them to me. nt

[LeftyMom]

13. I throw them in a trash bag with the used kitty litter and dump it all at once

I figure nobody's going to dig through cat shit to get my expired antibiotics and untaken vitamins. Now if you had to dump half a bottle of oxys or something else people would happily dig out of a bag of cat shit, the toilet would probably be a better idea.

[trogdor]

14. Feed 'em to the neighbor's annoying dog?

Half a Zoloft in a ball of ground chuck makes barking dogs chill for hours.

[BreweryYardRat]

18. I keep painkillers around. Never know when you're going to need them.

I got killer headaches, bordering on migraines, a couple times last fall, and some of the hydrocodone I had left over from my wisdom tooth extraction really helped with them.

Don't keep anything for more than a year, and trash anything besides painkillers.

By "trash," I mean "crush into useless powder before tossing into a Dumpster or garbage can."

[El Fuego]

19. I have a painkiller stash too.

If I have get painkiller prescription for whatever reason, I always ask for an extra refill and I just keep 'em.

[mondo joe]

20. Fill a candy dish and bring it to a potluck.

Or do people not use candy dishes these days?

[azmouse]

21. Contact your local waste disposal company.

They should have tips on correct disposal of unused medications.

[NorthernSpy]

22. I dunno... got any uninsured friends?

I once had to use a friend's leftover antibiotic ointment when we both got a serious eye infection. It worked, thank God. And I was grateful for it.

Yeah, people aren't supposed to share prescription meds. It's against the law. Thing is, the people who write such laws all have fantastic insurance -- paid for by the rest of us, of course.

[Ms_Dem_Meanor]

23. Flush them down the toilet. n/t

[Shakespeare]

25. No, do NOT flush them down the toilet.

Her pharmacist was incorrect in giving that advice.

[Ms_Dem_Meanor]

31. Why not?

That's what I do. :shrug: I have been doing that for years. Especially when I got off of the painkillers!

There is too many people where I live that digs in the trash looking for cans that also drink and do drugs!

[Shakespeare]

32. Because those chemicals go into the water supply, and then we ALL consume them.

A responsible pharmacy should have some sort of recycling program in place if you don't want to put them into your garbage, but PLEASE don't flush them.

Just one example: there are measurable amounts of prozac in our water supply right now--I'd prefer NOT to ingest psychotropic drugs that I don't need, thanks very much.

[Ms_Dem_Meanor]

33. Well...

that is something that I didn't know that. :wow:

I guess that explains why the Head freeper is the way he is then. :rofl:

[pokerfan]

57. LOL

But seriously, most waste water treatment plants are not designed to remove or destroy pharmaceuticals. And if you are on a septic system, if can leak into the groundwater.

The best solution is to find a pharmacy that will accept them and dispose of them for you. some will, some won't.

[ruiner4u]

34. You are correct sir!

Some 'fun' reading on hormones and painkillers that are ending up in water supplies...

http://cals.arizona.edu/AZWATER/awr/july00/feature1.htm


Also a few months ago I read a news story about the Thames river in London now has trace amounts of cocaine in it.. From what I remember of the story London has a crazy high rate of cocaine use and people urinate minuscule amounts of it into the sewage system and it gets into the river..

This also happens with all Rx drugs we take..

[hippywife]

24. Check around in your city.

We have a place here that takes the unused drugs, as long as they are in the original bottle/packaging and use them to treat the poor. If you aren't sure how to locate such a place where you live, contact the Director of Nursing at a nursing home and they can probably tell you if one exists and how to get ahold of them.

And I have heard the same thing about flushing them down the toilet so I don't anymore. Plus it's nice to know that I can help someone else by donating them. I do think they have some criteria on what they will take but that may vary by state.

[leftofthedial]

26. I crush them and put them in

the ketchup dispensers at Wendy's

[skygazer]

27. I will PM you my address

You can send them to me and I will dispose of them properly. :evilgrin:

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

28. Give them to me?

[sniffa]

29. seLL them to dead heads

[Blue-Jay]

30. Is it vicodin? Mail them to me!

[jilln]

36. UPDATE

I checked around in my city, tried to find something on the EPA Web site, etc., and the consensus is NOT to flush them down the toilet, but there is no advice on what to do, so I took LanternWaste's advice and they are now marinating in vinegar.

I also could not find any kind of donation program which of course I would have been happy to do, but in any case these pills are about 5 years old so they probably would not have been accepted anyway.

[eyepaddle]

39. See my response below (I think it's post 38) NT

[reyd reid reed]

37. You mean you're s'posed to dispose of them?

I know...you are. We don't have enough of them around here for it to be an issue though, just the occasional antibiotic and you're s'posed to take those until they're gone.

:shrug:

My understanding has always been that you're supposed to flush them. The percentage that actually gets into the water would be minimal, I'd think, and the water's treated at both ends of the system -- outgoing and incoming -- so that would minimize the risk even further.

[eyepaddle]

38. I work in Haz Waste Management

Well, it really depends on WHICH drugs you want to dispose of,

And this is actually a very complex topic which is just now being addressed by EPA, DEA and state and local authorities.

If they are DEA controlled substance (They'll have an upper case "C" with a roman numeral on the packaging,) you pretty much can't get rid of them (legally). Health clinics and hospitals can somtimes be allowed to sewer small quantities of DEA stuff--but that depends on the getting the OK from the local DEA office.

Other prescriptions, well, all bets are off. Some of them such as coumadin or warfarin (common heart meds) are what if termed "P Listed" or acutely hazardous waste, and othersare effectively non-regulated. Some states have their own definitons such as Minnesota Lethal which has to do with a toxicity LD50 of 500mg/kg.

To be quite honest, drug waste management is pretty much in the wild west stage of regulation, and health care providers and Pharmacies will have ZERO idea what the hell they are talking about. If your community has a household hazardous waste program you can try calling them--but they might refuse to accept it, for fear of running afoul of the DEA mostly. FYI, you should probably start with your County or City's Environmental Services division when asking questions.

When all else fails obscure identifying information dispose in the trash. Even if it goes straight into a landfill it won't go directly into surface waters (and treament plants don't really treat for this stuff, so they'd like to not accept it, but don't want to just stonewall people either.)

You've managed to ask a $64k question and the laws have not caught up to them at this point.

Sorry for the lack of a more defintie answer. :)

[jilln]

40. Thanks

I guess I'll dilute them as much as possible and put them in the trash. Don't want any animal to eat it and be killed either.

It was nothing fancy, just some pain relievers and muscle relaxers from a broken bone incident.

[eyepaddle]

50. Mixing with the acid

would probably susbstantially degrade their medical properties--I'm not certain, but that is my current educated guess. Of course you don't want to go too far and then have to dispose of an acidic waste!

If you're curious, and like to read governement regulations these rules are in 40 CFR parts 260-299 (It's the Code of Federal Regulations Part 260-265 and 266-290. This is the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA)) (And who DOESN'T like reading regulations?) :rofl:

Watching people try to figure out exactly how any regulatiuon applies is like watching theologians cite Bible verse!

Welcome to RCRA (pronounced Rick-rah) waste management! :hi:

[jilln]

51. NO thanks ;-)

Doing my taxes is enough government incomprehensibility for me for the year.

[Fleshdancer]

41. interesting....if we were smart we would start a drug waste company

Anyone who can come up with an affordable, environmentally safe way of disposing drug waste would probably make a lot of money.

[eyepaddle]

44. My former employer is making money hand-over-fist right now

I just switched jobs (I work at a college now); the problem with drugs is that they fall into so many different hazard classes, some are corrosive, some are toxic (a specific definition) some contain regulated metals such as chrome, there are even a few oxidizers. There are plenty of good management techniques--but what is right for one is wrong for some others. The DOT is acutally very prominent in waste management laws--as just about everything that gets disposed must be moved at some phase--usually in a truck on the road. And the DOT forbids packaging separate hazard classes in one container: as an example albuterol is anaersol (Class 2, gas) and must not go with coumadin (Class 6.1 poison solid) so to dispose of them somebody needs to separate all the fun stuff into its appropriate drums.

If there is anything like albumin or blood products then it is a potentially infectious material (Class 6.2 biohazard) mixed with any other hazard class it is now a dual waste, and medical waste outfits like stericycle can no longer accept it. Just to give you some idea as to how pricey this is a 15 gallon container of dual waste is about $800 to get rid of--there are only two facilities in the country which are permited to burn that stuff. Pharmaceutical waste is only in the last year being really examined. Because of that my old office's revenue just about doubled.

For the record, sorting through that stuff sucks :cry:

Probably more than you wanted to know, but it is a complex topic, and no doubt an important one. I don't miss doing those lab packs, but I am pretty glad I had that job for the last ten years--it's such an arcane field! :)

[RetroLounge]

42. unused prescription drugs?

Unused? What's that mean? :D

RL

[leeroysphitz]

43. Why let them go to waste when you can "freecycle" them.? nt

[jilln]

48. Here's a conclusion jumpin' to ya

It's illegal. And potentially very dangerous.

[leeroysphitz]

53. Not in my state.

[jilln]

55. Are you sure?

I looked around the 'net and it seems like it's illegal everywhere.

[leeroysphitz]

60. Not in my country.

[eyepaddle]

61. freecycling meds isn't a crime you are likely to get busted

for, but it is illegal. Although to be honest when you go to get rid of meds in any way other than taking them as prescribed the chance is very good that you are breaking a law.

For example, returning them to a pharmacy for diposal: most pharmacies(even the ones in clinics and hospitals) get rid of expired drugs by sending them back to the manufacturer in a reverse distribution arrangement. Strictly speaking these arrangements are illegal and in violation of RCRA standards. Unless a chemical which meets the definition of a hazardous waste is being returned to be reused, or recycyled into the original products intended use, then it must be managed as a hazardous waste. This means that it must only be transported by somebody with all applicable permits, travel with manifests and LDRs (aka Land Bans) and treated according to the applicable treatment standard. Since pharmaceutical companies do not remanufacture the same drugs out of the old ones, when they collect expired product they are illegally transporting hazardous waste.

Until about a year ago nobody paid any attention at all to this issue, but after 30 or so years of going after refineiries and whatnot the EPA has decided to take a look at drug waste. They are doing this first in the Northeast (and when Minnesota saw what was going on they wanted in too). The healthcare industry has reacted with a classic "why is everybody picking on me?" approach. The answer is simply "because it's finally your turn, I hope you enjoyed the 30 year free ride, though."

My personal suspicion is that pharma will get their lobbyists cranking on this issue and we'll see some new amendments and clarifications on the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), and possibly some changes in permiting by the DOT. Although the DOT is far less impressed by outside pressure than are most government agencies; they swing a HUGE club and are not afraid to let you know you're playing in their house.

To sum up, if you get rid of drugs by any means OTHER than taking them, you are probably breaking a variety of laws, but they are laws individuals are unlikely to get hassled over.

[u4ic]

45. Call the pharmacy

they should have some sort of disposal program.

[hyphenate]

46. I've got plenty of old prescriptions

still. Supposedly, vitamins don't expire for a long time, so they get kept longest. Antibiotics go into the trash if old, I've kept older NSAIDs and pain killers for awhile. My mom and I are on several of the same drugs, so I give her the ones she can use--otherwise, she's got a $400 monthly prescription bill, even with prescription D from Medicare.

My best advice is to hang on to a lot of different drugs because there are certain ones that are rushed through the FDA and end up being recalled down the line. If that happens, there is often a class action suit filed by a group of patients, and having the prescription is evidence of use and can help you become part of the lawsuit. I remember when Rezulin was being prescribed for my mom and I told her to get off them because there was evidence of liver damage associated with it and fatalities. Her friggin doctor kept it on them for about a year longer than when I told her to get off it.

On the other hand, if it's a generic, chances are it's not going to create much of a wave and can safely be tossed in the garbage. A company has a 7 year exclusive right to sell a newly developed drug and then the patent allows for generics to be sold. Some drug companies are trying to change that to a 10 year exclusivity, but the 7 year limit benefits a lot of people in getting newer medications.

My suggestion for getting rid of what you should, like antibiotics, is to put them into a plastic bag, tie a knot in the bag and wait until trash day to actually discard. Most garbage now ends up at a landfill, so there is no way for someone to dumpster dive, and keeping them in a plastic bag keeps the drugs from permeating into the ground and polluting.

[SPKrazy]

47. Give Them To ME

I'll dispose of them

:evilgrin:

[meegbear]

49. If they're strong painkillers or can cause hallucinations ...

send them to me.

[HEyHEY]

52. Sell them to kids

[uppityperson]

54. take to pharmacy or hospital. They can dispose of them

that is 1 of the things they do, get rid of things like that.

[samplegirl]

56. Give them to

your mother in law in her tea!

[evirus]

59. Ebay

simple, and "cost effective"