It all started when I pulled out our band-aid basket and discovered that NO-ONE throws away the darn wrappers. The frustration of digging through empty bandage wrappers frustrated me enough to address the entire cabinet and get to cleaning (small pause while those who know me come out of their shock and stop laughing)....I know, ha, ha... but it does happen occasionally. Don’t get too excited, it was one small cabinet in my kitchen that holds odd, non-kitchen items like flashlights, batteries, band-aids and medicine.
I wasn’t surprised to find 10-12 old medicines, prescription and over-the-counter, in my cabinet. I was never quite sure what to do with them, but my going green attitude (and my 52 week commitment to be green) got me investigating the proper way to dispose of old medicine.
In the past, people were encouraged to flush their pills down the toilet to avoid the “candy factor” I like to call it. Pretty colors in different shapes and sizes could easily be mistaken for delicious candy (Is that what happens to Hollywood stars?) We all agree it’s important to keep old medicine from harming children, but the old flushing method appears to be harming the environment - which ironically harms not only our children, but all of us!
An Associated Press Investigation found drugs in the drinking water of 24 major metropolitan areas across the country. Wastewater treatment cannot remove these drugs completely from the water and therefore whatever drugs are flushed down the toilet, whether from human elimination or from dumping of old medicine, ends up in our water supply and in the environment. Results of this buildup of medications include poisoning or mutations in wildlife, particularly fish, increased antibiotic resistance among harmful bacteria, and the potential consumption of "background levels" of everything from estrogen-disrupting chemicals to mood-altering ones, with unknown long-term effects on all of us.
Although there isn’t much we can do regarding the human elimination factor in this equation, we can avoid dumping medicine down the drain and adding to the drugs in our water.
Medication Disposal
- Take your medicine to a hazardous waste facility where your waste will be incinerated
- Ask your local pharmacy if they collect unwanted medicine.
- Bring old medicine to your local hazardous waste drop off.
- Unsure where to go, Earth 911 will find the nearest hazardous waste collection site.
- Many cities have a Medication Disposal Day allowing folks to bring their old medications to various locations for drop-off.
So I’m off to my local pharmacy to ask if they will properly dispose of my old pills. As for the containers...that big green monster is in my head again and I’m wondering how I can keep them out of the landfill....but that’s another story so stay tuned!
