Recycle Drugs, Recycle Medicine – Disposing of Medicine Properly
Posted by easy eco blog

October 29, 2011 is National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day. The DEA is promoting this day for people to turn in your unused or expired medication for safe disposal. They have a local collection site locator on their website. It is important to recycle drugs and recycle medicine properly.
We all have heard of traces of drugs in the water system. It is time to make sure no one contributes to this any more by flushing expired or unused medicine down the drain. Wastewater treatment facilities aren’t designed to remove pharmaceuticals but someday may need to be.
Many local police departments take medicine waste as do many pharmacies.
FDA has some guidelines, some of which seem outdated.
NoDrugsDownTheDrain.org has a locator to help you find places to properly dispose of medicine.
Chemicals from medicines have been even measured in water from sewage treatment plants. Our waste has traces of these chemicals and chemicals from cosmetics wash off from our skin as we shower. This will be hopefully someday addressed.
China Trash Can Chinglish – Lost in translation

Here is an interesting trash can we encountered deep in the heart of China. Glad to see they are pushing recycling. Not sure why they choose Organism for Trash…
Related posts:
- Patience is the Best Medicine
- Recycle My Old Fridge
- Zicam Homeopathic Nasal Medicine
- China Trash Can Chinglish – Lost in translation
- Recycle Cell Phones, Recycle Electronics, Recycle Computer Equipment Responsibly – Sony Electronics Trade-in program
- Targeting “Zero” Waste or Minimizing Trash
- Recycle Everything – Recycling Tips
- Recology New Recycling System with Composting
Filed under: Easy, Effort, Environment, Green, Health, Home, Water | Tags: flush medicine, Medicine Disposal
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2 Responses to “Recycle Drugs, Recycle Medicine – Disposing of Medicine Properly”
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October 5th, 2009 at 12:01 am
[...] Also dispose of medication properly. [...]
December 30th, 2011 at 1:50 am
Expired medicines should be disposed properly for safety. However most people do not follow this practice and just flush it causing damage to water systems. It is good to note that there are agencies that they can contact for the safe disposal of unused or expired medicine so that our water systems can be protected.