When did you check your medicine cabinet? Did you know that taking expired pills could be harmful or more harm than good? Do you know that you should never flush unwanted or expired medication down the drain? It could contaminant your drinking water. Living in Arizona and realizing how important water is, I will say that would be BAD ~ Very Bad!
Many places have a take back day.
According to Earth911, the best option is to take advantage of Drug Take Back programs that are held a couple times a year by municipalities and National Drug Take Back Days that are provided by the Federal DEA. Mail back programs are also easy and convenient. Jump to the recycling locator to find one now.
If you do not have a drug take back program in your area you can use this disposal method suggested by SmaRxt Disposal- you can safely dispose of your unused and expired medications in your household trash. They recommend these steps:
- Pour medication into a sealable plastic bag. If medication is a solid (pill, liquid capsule, etc.), add water to dissolve it.
- Add kitty litter, sawdust, coffee grounds or any material that mixes with the medication and makes it less appealing for pets and children to eat to the plastic bag.
- Seal the plastic bag and put it in the trash.
- Remove and destroy all identifying personal information (prescription label) from all medication containers before recycling them or throwing them away.
So what are you waiting for? Check your medicine cabinets! Now that you have taken care of all those unwanted or expired medications you can now sort the remained and organize what you have. I use small boxes (Mine are pencil boxes) and I have one for bandages, one for allergy and cold, and one for general first aid. You should set up what works for you and your family.
Also remember to keep all medications out of reach of children. This is especially important for grandparents. As your medications may not have childproof caps and you may not have small children around all the time so it is easy to overlook the potential dangers.
For you pet parent the same thing applies. My pets are furry vacuums. It is it on the floor they will eat it. One of my pups had a great time with a tube of lip balm. My what a mess!
Thanks for your patience. I have had visitors for a wonderful extended visit. My parents spent 3 fabulous weeks and I must admit I ignored everything but them. Living far away makes every visit special.
Back on track. Have a wonderful week. I love your comments.
Thanks Pamela
That was a great bit of advice about disposing medicines! Thanks for sharing it! 🙂
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Thanks Jazz.
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So true..great post on awareness of expired medicines.
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While the disposal you speak of may be okay in some states, it isn’t legal in others. The very BEST way to dispose of medications is either to take them to your personal physician in their original containers for disposal or call the local police/sheriff and make arrangements to drop them off in their original containers for destruction.To take them out of their original containers and transport them anywhere in the states is a felony.
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Good points Suze! Thanks for the info.
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Hmmm, this is a growing issue. First, people do not consume the full course of medicine. Second, we are usually issued with more than what we need. Especially anti-biotics. Not only does it contaminate the water, it not consuming it as prescribed may build up resistance to the very medicine we need to work!
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That is so true. Thanks so much for sharing that valuable information.
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It used to be so common to dispose of medicine into the sink not realizing that we were contaminating the water supply.
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So true.
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This is actually really timely for me with a medicine cupboard that’s overflowing with out of date medications, creams and tablets. Thanks for the motivation to clear this out.
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By the way Congrats on the new Job!!
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Thanks so much!
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