Oftentimes, unused, unwanted, and expired medications get stored in the medicine cabinet, flushed down the toilet, or thrown in the trash. These may seem like simple solutions, but they can be unsafe for children, pets, and the environment. If you’re part of the one-third of Americans who have not emptied out their medicine cabinets this year, allow us to convince you to do so.
Safely Disposing of Medications is Important for Public Safety
It’s important to dispose of any unwanted or expired medications promptly. Failure to do so could lead to accidental use or intentional misuse of the products.
Throwing unused medications in the trash can cause serious harm to children and pets. Nearly 60,000 children each year suffer accidental poisoning after finding and ingesting medications at home.
Flushing medications down the toilet can contribute to the contamination of waterways, like rivers and canals, as wastewater treatment plants are not designed to remove medications from the water. This contamination can end up affecting our food and water supply.
Storing medications that are unwanted or expired increases the risk that someone will intentionally misuse the drugs. Two-thirds of teenagers and young adults who report abusing prescription medications admit to getting the drugs from family, friends, and acquaintances. Your medicine cabinet is a temptation to friends and family looking to abuse unused prescription medications.
Bring Us Your Unused, Unwanted, and Expired Medications
Bringing your unwanted medications to a drug take-back service is the safest and most responsible way to dispose of unused medications. Summit Health Pharmacy is a registered DEA drug disposal site in Pennsylvania. This means that we can properly and safely dispose of medications. Even if you’re not a customer of Summit Health Pharmacy, we welcome your unused, unwanted, and expired medications.
Before bringing us your unwanted medications:
-Keep all medications in their original container
-Use a marker to black out all personal information from the packaging. (But do not black out the name of the medication or dose.)
If you’re a regular customer or within local driving distance, we will come to you to pick up your unwanted and unused medications. If you’re not a customer or if you’re outside of a local driving distance, you can visit our pharmacy location and leave your medications in the “Drug Take-Back” bin (resembling a mailbox) in front of our building.
Call us at 866-872-5430 to get specific instructions on what medications are accepted, or to find out whether we can pick up your medications at your home. If you do not live in the area, visit the Drug Enforcement Agency’s Diversion Control Division website to find a registered disposal site near you.
Sources:
https://web.extension.illinois.edu/unusedmeds/whatarethey/unwantedmedicine.cfm
https://www.productstewardship.us/page/Start_Drug_Takeback
http://www.takebackyourmeds.org/what-you-can-do/medicine-disposal-myths-and-facts/
https://www.webmd.com/parenting/news/20160321/60000-us-kids-treated-for-accidental-medicine-poisoning-a-year#1
https://www.consumerreports.org/drug-safety/the-problem-with-expired-medication/