How Do I Dispose of Old or Unwanted Medicine?
Fish Pharm, shows concentrations of medicine found in fish from the north branch of the Chicago River. Source: National Geographic Magazine, April 2010
Old advice for disposing of unwanted or expired medicine was to flush it down the toilet. Now, scientists have found these medicines are polluting our waterways, including those we use for drinking water. “Don’t rush to flush!” is the new mantra.
To protect water quality and for public safety, medicines should be taken for disposal at a verified collection site. In DuPage County, many police stations take part in the RxBox program for medicine disposal. SCARCE continues to work to expand the RxBox program with help from a grant from the DuPage Foundation.
What Happens to the Medicine?
It is incinerated. This process completely destroys the active ingredients in the medicine. Although this is not an ideal situation for air quality, it is better than flushing medicines down the toilet or throwing them in the trash. When flushed, medicine gets into waterways and few water treatment centers can extract it. When thrown out, medicine can mix with water or other liquids in a landfill and drain into soil and groundwater.
Disposal Details
Medicine that is no longer needed can be disposed of at certain police stations (see list below), the Naperville Household Hazardous Waste Collection Facility, and select Walgreens pharmacies during store hours.
Empty all the pills into a ziplock bag*. The bottle or container can be disposed of separately (and may be recyclable). Collection sites have very limited space to collect old medicine and want to prioritize disposal of medicines and not packaging nor do they want your personal information from the prescription bottle.
*Liquid medicines should remain in their original container and enclosed in a separate ziploc bag.
Accepted Items