It’s easy to throw our daily garbage when we conduct proper segregation in our households. We can quickly identify what goes where and which bins we should utilize. If you think that process makes things easy, where do you think your prescription drugs should go?
Never crossed your mind? That’s fine, but your unused or maybe expired prescription drugs shouldn’t be carelessly stored for a long time in your medicine cabinet. Not only does it create litter, but it can lead to potential unmanned and irresponsible drug usage.
You might be asking where you should dispose of your unused prescription drugs and what you should do about it. To provide answers to your questions and acknowledge other questions about the proper disposal of prescription drugs, we advise you to read further. We have laid out the basic how-tos and more information on disposing of your prescription drugs the right way.
The Basic Disposal Process
If household trash has a segregation process to follow, the same goes with your unused and expired prescription drugs. There’s also a necessary disposal process with prescription drugs. The steps are simple, and you can do it all by yourself.
The first thing you should do is to collect all your unused and expired prescription drugs and take them out of their container. Don’t throw the container recklessly. Make sure to set them aside, and remove or cover your personal information on the bottles.
Second is to prepare a plastic container with any of the following materials: cat litter, mud or dirt, and coffee grounds. This will make your trash composition less appealing to anyone interested in scraping garbage in the trash pit.
Did you know that if disposing of drugs is easy to identify, it leads to potential drug abuse by any stranger who intentionally seeks out drugs in the garbage? This is why it’s crucial to throw them this way so that no one can quickly identify that it contains drugs.
Lastly, mix the prescription drugs along with the composition you have prepared, and you can throw them away together with your household trash.
If you still have questions regarding the disposal process, you can check BuzzRX Prescription Medication Disposal for a further and well-detailed explanation.
The Types of Disposal
Throwing your unused and expired prescription drugs together with your household trash, is just one of the few types of proper disposal. There are actually other options that you can choose, whichever is possible as long as you follow the proper procedure for the right drug.
Disposal with Authorized Collectors
Have you heard of Drug Take-Back Programs in your community? Or have you seen collection boxes installed in some areas by your local pharmacies or local law enforcement agencies? That’s one way to dispose of your unused prescription drugs and the safest way to do so.
The government and the medical community highly support Take-Back Programs as it is the safest and the most secure way to dispose of prescription medication. If this option is available in your locality, choose this one rather than throwing your medicine together with your household trash. It requires no money, it’s easy, and more importantly, it’s the only environmentally sound method for disposing of unused medicines.
To Burn or To Flush?
There are many speculations on whether unused prescription drugs can be burned or flushed down the drain. The quick answer is no to burning and yes to flushing. But there’s a catch when you flush drugs down the kitchen sink.
According to the U.S. Food and Drug Association (US FDA), you can only flush unused prescription medicine if they are on the U.S. FDA Flush List. If not, consider choosing other options for that matter. This exemption is given with high regard since some medication requires immediate disposal due to health endangerment and fatal if a single dose of it is misused.
With regards to burning, never burn prescription medicines. Prescription drugs have a different composition. Once they encounter heat due to burning, it might lead to possible poisoning, inhaling harmful products, and an even bigger problem. That is why it’s never recommended to burn any prescription drugs or any medicines at all.
Takeaway
If you think there are many things that you need to remember when it comes to proper disposal of your prescription medicine, remember Return, Flush, and Toss. This way, you can easily remember what to do with your unused medicines.
Return requires you to find an authorized collection center to return your medicine. Flush, which is the most convenient process, can be done by checking the FDA Flush List. While Toss involves lots of work, you’re sure that your medicines won’t get into the wrong hands and abuse it. With this, you can practice the basic how-tos of properly disposing of your unused prescription medication in no time.
