3 Ways to Dispose of Your Old, Unused Medications Safely

Many of the drugs that are prescribed to individuals sit in medicine cabinets months and years beyond their reasonable expiration date. These drugs may be harmful to you to take or for kids and grandchildren to sneak into or accidentally swallow.

It’s important to dispose of these unused or unwanted prescriptions or over-the-counter drugs as soon as they’re not needed. But how? Well, these three methods are the best and safest ways to get rid of your drugs.

Medication Take-Back Programs

It’s likely that your community offers a drug take-back program. The Drug Enforcement Agency actually launched a ‘National Drug Take-Back Day‘, you can search for the program closest to your residence. If you are not able to locate a program close to you, ask your local pharmacist about the programs in your area.

Household Trash

Ultimately, if you’re not able to dispose of your medications at a take-back program, you can dispose of them in your household trash. Scratch off any identifying names on your pill bottles and dump the pills or medication into non-edible substances like kitty litter or coffee grounds to detract any temptation from someone who may want to ingest them.

Flushing Certain Drugs Down the Toilet or Drain

Not every drug can be flushed down the toilet. In fact, so many people are flushing drugs [and other things] that shouldn’t be going down the commode, that there is something called ‘fatburgs’ that are clogging our sewers and making it dangerous for workers.

Here is a list of drugs that the FDA says is safe to flush down the toilet.

We mentioned other things that shouldn’t be flushed down the toilet. You can learn more about common household products that are marketed as ‘flushable’ but in fact, are not meant to be placed in the toilet in this snippet from TV show, ‘Adam Ruins Everything’.