Out With the Old: Safely Dispose of Expired Medications
- Pharmacist Kelly Bailey
- Apr 1, 2025
- 3 min read
We are now officially in spring, which means it’s time to take stock, clear out, and get rid of things that no longer serve us. When thinking about things cluttering your countertops, bathrooms, or medicine cabinets, a perfect place to start is checking your over-the-counter medicines and prescriptions.
But before we get there…
Why is it important to clear out our medicine cabinets?
Peace of Mind
Many of us have the tendency to keep things around “just in case” or to over-purchase when items go on sale. If we’re not careful, this inevitably means these medications will expire no matter how well-intentioned we may have been in saving money or thinking ahead in the first place. Taking stock of what we have and use frequently can help us make room for things we need. It also doesn’t hurt to get rid of things to reduce clutter: a win-win!
Safety
Keeping around expired medications or medications you no longer take may not seem like a huge deal, but the repercussions of accidentally taking an expired medication or one you shouldn’t be taking in the first place can be serious and have major negative effects.
An easy way to know when you should get rid of medicines:
1. Your doctor changes your prescription but you have some left over
2. You are no longer sick and your doctor says you should stop taking the medication
3. The over-the-counter medications you have you no longer use or need
4. The medications are expired ³
How to safely dispose of medications?
Do NOT flush MOST medications
While flushing medicines is an easy option, it is not always a safe option. Medications contain elements like hard-to-break-down chemicals that negatively impact the environment, polluting water resources, and affecting fish and other aquatic life. These chemicals can also end up in your drinking water, affecting your local community.⁴
There are, however, exceptions to be aware of. The FDA has a comprehensive list of medications that can be flushed because they are “sought-after for their misuse and/or abuse potential” and “that can result in death from one dose if inappropriately taken. If children, adults, or pets in your home accidentally or intentionally ingest, touch, misuse, or abuse a medicine on the flush list, they can suffer serious consequences including death.”⁵
A full list of medications that can be flushed can be found here:
Take advantage of drug take-back programs
Twice a year, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) sponsors National Prescription Drug Take Back Day nationwide. On April 26th, participating pharmacies are accepting unused prescription medications on-site, but many accept medications all year.
During the last National Take Back Day on October 26, 2024: 4,425 law enforcement participated, there were a total of 4,644 collection sites, and a total of 629,953 pounds of medications collected.¹
Give us a call today to see how we can help you safely dispose of your prescriptions!
Long-term Solutions: Keeping on top of your medications
Yearly taking stock of your medicine cabinets is a great way to consistently check what you use, what you need to repurchase, and what you need to dispose of. But, what if you could have a better long-term system in place?
Medication Reviews
Sitting down with a pharmacist and reviewing your medications is a great way to mitigate any unnecessary medication interactions, causing an excess of unneeded and unused medicines cluttering your counters and shelves. Your pharmacist can make sure that all your medications are working for you as they should as well as checking to see if there are any areas of improvement, such as adding or subtracting over-the-counter vitamins and supplements.
Medication Compliance Packaging and Med Sync Services
A great way to cut down on pill bottle clutter overall is to take advantage of any medication packaging and med sync services the pharmacy can provide. This can mean compiling your medication into one easy-to-use packaging system that indicates time and day, decreasing the chance of missed doses; downsizing the number of containers to take when you’re traveling; and eliminating the need to sort pills.
Medication synchronization services can also decrease the number of times you have to stop at the pharmacy to pick up your meds. This not only saves you time, gas, and energy, it also can help simplify and, in a sense, declutter your to-do list.
Get in touch today to see how our services can make your life simpler!
Sources:
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