Tossing old pills...

[valerie]

DH and I were talking about this a little while ago.

In our city, you aren't supposed to flush any pills

down the toilet, apparently sewage treatment plant can't

remove ALL of the stuff so some residue gets in the water

and hurts the fishies. What to do? We have a "toxic

clean-up" area here once a year, and also a permanent

station at our dump. (Sorry, Refuse Collection Site )

We are supposed to take them there for disposal. I think

that would be fine for things like old aspirin but do they

really expect people to take their prescriptions in and

hand them to a stranger who probably (fed laws) shouldn't

handle it?

What do you guys do?

[Lil~Basco]

I take them to my physician and ask that they dispose of them, which they have no problem doing since it's an occasional thing.

[abbey]

Take them to the chemist and let them dispose of them.

[Peg]

I would never just throw them away. What if an animal got in your trash and a child saw the pills laying there and took them? I usually flush mine but think the doctor's office would be the best place to take them. I worked for a doctor before and we would stick all outdated samples in the incinerator.

[valerie]

I understand your concern Peg but no animal is going to get into my trash

and I don't think kids would, either. I can just save up anything and take

it to my toxics round-up once a year.



I don't have any old meds anyway, I was just curious about what other

people do, since the "flush them down the toilet" was the standard for

MANY years...

[Amie]

Far Rider wrote: Val this came up here at work, the pharmacy dumps major amounts of pharmaceuticals down the drain on a daily basis... I find it amazing they are asking the public to dispose of medicines when pharmacies just dump them in the same hole.

We had had to change our procedure ahead of it being demanded in order to be responsible to our invironment... mostly we do not dump anitibiotics down the drain... think of how many bugs got developed in the sewer that are resistant to antibiotics!

Any way... the best way to handle it is to drop them in your regular garbage. The landfill is still the best place for them.


You aren't far wrong . :wah: Actually, putting antibiotics in any kind of waste available to average Joe is actually quite harmful. It helps build up natural resistances to anitbiotics.

The very best thing to do, is hand them back to your Pharmacist, or a local GP or Hospital. In Australia, hospitals are bound to dispose of Antibiotics and anitbiotics containers in the same manner as sharps. That is, crushed to a fine powder (like talcum) sterilised, sterilised again, and THEN eventually put to landfill in specifically developed medical waste landfills. For all other non hardcore drugs, landfill is fine.

[valerie]

Well don't want to get on a high horse here but it's my personal

opinion that nobody but NOBODY should have "leftover" antibiotics.

You take them ALL, every last one. People over the years who quit

taking them as soon as they felt better are a major part of the reason

we're in the fix we're in regarding the anti's!!



Okay, I'll stop now!!



:(

[CARLA]

If you have old perscriptions destroy them by crushing them and if necessary put water on them then throw them away. I agree Val if your perscribed antibiotics take them all period.

It took me several different blood pressure medications to get the right one, I had perscriptions that I never finished I smashed them up and ground them up then dumped them. I don't put my perscription bottle in the trash unless I remove the labels people have been know to take bottle that have refills left on them and try and have them filled.