November 27, 2007
Where Go the Unwanted Meds?
Americans take a lot of medications and, in many cases, find they have leftovers after their various ailments have ceased to be a problem. The question then becomes what to do with medicines that are no longer needed.
Many in the past have resorted to simply flushing the various medicines down the toilet. But, as recent studies of have demonstrated, the chemicals contained in these products and others are being found in drinking water.
According to a 2002 U.S. Geological Survey, 80 percent of 139 streams tested contained traces of drugs including acetaminophen, antibiotics, codeine, hormones, ibuprofen and steroids.
One study done in Utah found nearly a dozen different antibiotic compounds in the water from the Jordan River in the Salt Lake Valley. The problem with this disposal method, according to scientists, is that treatment plants are not designed to remove these chemicals from the water.
There is particular concern over antibiotics being found in the water supply as health officials worry that the presence of the medicines may breed strains of antibiotic-resistance bacteria.
Federal, state and local agencies have issued statements on the proper disposal of medicines (both prescription and over-the-counter) and generally recommend that consumers dispose of medicines in the trash. They suggest added precautions such as mixing medicines with kitty litter, pouring water into bottles containing pills or adding salt or other ingredients into liquid medicines.
As the population ages and the number of remedies filling the nation’s medicine cabinets continue to grow, the issue of disposal becomes more pronounced.
Leiter’s Pharmacy in San Jose, Calif. has seen an opportunity in this situation and decided to accept medicines from consumers looking to get rid of them in a responsible manner.
Robyn Shalinsky, a pharmacist at Leiter’s, told the San Jose Mercury News, “It’s really a problem that’s ongoing. People just don’t want this stuff around.”
According to the Mercury News report, Leiter’s started the program after speaking with a local hospice that found itself with medicines left over after patients passed away.
A law passed last month in California has authorized grants for pilot programs focused on collecting old medicines.
The sponsor of the bill, Sen. Joe Simitian, D-Palo Alto, praised Leiter’s. “This is exactly the kind of community responsibility we need. When pharmacies take back and properly dispose of unused medicine, it means cleaner waterways.”
Discussion Questions: Should pharmacies step up and take an active role in collecting unused and expired prescription and over-the-counter medicines? Will pharmacies such as Leiter’s that take an active role in this area benefit competitively as a result?
- At last, a home for unwanted drugs – San Jose Mercury News
- Disposing of Prescription Medicines and Over-the-Counter (OTC) Products – State of Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection
- Prescription meds: Drop off, don’t flush – The Salt Lake Tribune
- Government Guidelines on Disposal of Leftover Drugs – DOTmed.com
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It’s like batteries. There will be those that will take the time to deal with disposing of them in an environmentally friendly way and there will be those that don’t. Most consumers won’t take the time to return old drugs. Perhaps marketing it around child-safety and senior safety as well, along with the environmental message, might bring some action. But at the end of the day, unless the drugstores are either giving money back to the consumer and making money as a result of their efforts, it won’t have any traction.
Few people will bother to take meds back to the pharmacy unless they will get $$$ for them. They will most likely end up in the trash with everything else.
The Federal Guidelines, updated earlier this year, still include instructions for disposing of unwanted medications in landfills and through flushing. However, they also include the following:
“Return unused, unneeded, or expired prescription drugs to pharmaceutical take-back locations that allow the public to bring unused drugs to a central location for safe disposal.”
The industry certainly has an adequate reverse distribution supply chain for its own returns. I wouldn’t be surprised if a few enterprising independents offer this service to consumers.
The positive consumer story is only going to be more valuable as the population ages. On the cost side, it means a few more transaction fees, which may be partially recoverable. It also means being able to comply with the pedigree tracking regs, which seem to be changing daily on a state-by-state basis. The challenge for the big national chains is the diversity of the state reg development activities. Therefore patient returns fall into one of those cracks that independents often mine for nuggets of differentiation.
Disposing of unwanted medicines is a problem that is larger than it should be. Increased education should help as would an alternative such as pharmacies accepting them. This seems similar to getting rid of old electronics. People dump these in landfills unless offered a better choice. Staples taking them for a $10 charge was a good start but Costco’s giving store credits for them is even better. But, this needs to start with more people understanding how much this harms our water supplies, and why.
Am I the only paranoid ex-New Yorker who can envision New York Post headlines saying “Mom Dies from Recycled Meds; Pharmacy Was Rebottling ‘Unused’ Pills and Passing Them Off As New; Strychnine found in some ‘returned’ meds.”
Golly, it’s so easy to just put ’em in the trash. Maybe we just need a public education campaign about why it’s stupid to flush them. Sorry, all this just sounds like overkill to me.
The idea who’s time has come!
1. A benefit to the environment;
2. A benefit to groups that cannot afford the drugs–if we can find a safe way to get them back into the system;
3. A benefit to the customer who has purchased them and now can feel that someone will get value rather then just throwing them out;
4. A benefit to the drug store that not only is now seen as a good corporate citizen but also gets the customer to come back in.
Looks like a win win for everyone!
Pharmacies should not be asked to perform this function unprofitably, unless it’s used as a marketing tool, by the pharmacy, as a choice.
Consumers should not be advised to dispose of unwanted prescription medications in cat litter as one of your sources suggests. The idea behind the suggestion was to place unwanted drugs in something so distasteful as litter box waste so that no person or animal will touch the stuff. There are tremendous problems with this.
First, substance abusers will seek drugs out and use them from any source because of their behavioral tendencies. Why else would they self-administer impure, contaminated, homemade meth?
Secondly, people do not read complete news releases like this and media does not report them well. Some will only see “dump drugs in the litterbox,” and do so. Animals could then consume the drugs and be harmed or die. And it is not unheard of for unattended toddlers to eat out of a litterbox either.
Proper drug disposal is as serious a concern as the prescriptions they were written under.
This should be approached as an environmental issue. The public already responds positively to “green” messages, so I can only assume a positive response to medicine disposal. Most pharmaceutical retailers spend marketing funds in educational programs that can easily accept this issue. Consumer will reward the retailer for the awareness alone, but retailers should also study the cost/benefits of having a collection function.
That clean Vermont air must be stirring Warren’s pragmatism genes this morning. I’m with him in thinking that this is an educational program waiting to happen. There has to be some catch phrase out there (think “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle) to help people to remember to trash these things instead of flushing them. If we are worried about the resulting chemicals in the landfills making their way to the water table anyway, then provide consumers with a “personal haz-mat container” that could be identified and isolated at recycling centers and tell us to put them in the recycle bin instead of the trash bag.
Unneeded medications, whether prescription or over-the-counter, should never be thrown in the trash. They will leak into landfill and eventually find their way into the environment, in rivers and bays, and adversely affect fish and wildlife.
Pharmacies should take back any unneeded medications and recycle them properly. The pharma industry should establish the recycling process. My local Kaiser pharmacy will take back unwanted medications. Ask your pharmacy if they will take them back, and encourage them to do so if they are reluctant.
The words mountain and molehill spring to mind. A simple sticker, label or logo on every bottle or box indicating that it should be thrown in the trash surely should be enough?
Local nonprofits (such as Aid For Aids) and many church pantries accept prescription medicine donations from fellow patients and their estates. They also accept physicians’ samples. In many cases, there’s no need to destroy unused medicines that poor people need. And toxic waste removal is an expense, while donations are the opposite.
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It’s like batteries. There will be those that will take the time to deal with disposing of them in an environmentally friendly way and there will be those that don’t. Most consumers won’t take the time to return old drugs. Perhaps marketing it around child-safety and senior safety as well, along with the environmental message, might bring some action. But at the end of the day, unless the drugstores are either giving money back to the consumer and making money as a result of their efforts, it won’t have any traction.
Few people will bother to take meds back to the pharmacy unless they will get $$$ for them. They will most likely end up in the trash with everything else.
The Federal Guidelines, updated earlier this year, still include instructions for disposing of unwanted medications in landfills and through flushing. However, they also include the following:
“Return unused, unneeded, or expired prescription drugs to pharmaceutical take-back locations that allow the public to bring unused drugs to a central location for safe disposal.”
The industry certainly has an adequate reverse distribution supply chain for its own returns. I wouldn’t be surprised if a few enterprising independents offer this service to consumers.
The positive consumer story is only going to be more valuable as the population ages. On the cost side, it means a few more transaction fees, which may be partially recoverable. It also means being able to comply with the pedigree tracking regs, which seem to be changing daily on a state-by-state basis. The challenge for the big national chains is the diversity of the state reg development activities. Therefore patient returns fall into one of those cracks that independents often mine for nuggets of differentiation.
Disposing of unwanted medicines is a problem that is larger than it should be. Increased education should help as would an alternative such as pharmacies accepting them. This seems similar to getting rid of old electronics. People dump these in landfills unless offered a better choice. Staples taking them for a $10 charge was a good start but Costco’s giving store credits for them is even better. But, this needs to start with more people understanding how much this harms our water supplies, and why.
Am I the only paranoid ex-New Yorker who can envision New York Post headlines saying “Mom Dies from Recycled Meds; Pharmacy Was Rebottling ‘Unused’ Pills and Passing Them Off As New; Strychnine found in some ‘returned’ meds.”
Golly, it’s so easy to just put ’em in the trash. Maybe we just need a public education campaign about why it’s stupid to flush them. Sorry, all this just sounds like overkill to me.
The idea who’s time has come!
1. A benefit to the environment;
2. A benefit to groups that cannot afford the drugs–if we can find a safe way to get them back into the system;
3. A benefit to the customer who has purchased them and now can feel that someone will get value rather then just throwing them out;
4. A benefit to the drug store that not only is now seen as a good corporate citizen but also gets the customer to come back in.
Looks like a win win for everyone!
Pharmacies should not be asked to perform this function unprofitably, unless it’s used as a marketing tool, by the pharmacy, as a choice.
Consumers should not be advised to dispose of unwanted prescription medications in cat litter as one of your sources suggests. The idea behind the suggestion was to place unwanted drugs in something so distasteful as litter box waste so that no person or animal will touch the stuff. There are tremendous problems with this.
First, substance abusers will seek drugs out and use them from any source because of their behavioral tendencies. Why else would they self-administer impure, contaminated, homemade meth?
Secondly, people do not read complete news releases like this and media does not report them well. Some will only see “dump drugs in the litterbox,” and do so. Animals could then consume the drugs and be harmed or die. And it is not unheard of for unattended toddlers to eat out of a litterbox either.
Proper drug disposal is as serious a concern as the prescriptions they were written under.
This should be approached as an environmental issue. The public already responds positively to “green” messages, so I can only assume a positive response to medicine disposal. Most pharmaceutical retailers spend marketing funds in educational programs that can easily accept this issue. Consumer will reward the retailer for the awareness alone, but retailers should also study the cost/benefits of having a collection function.
That clean Vermont air must be stirring Warren’s pragmatism genes this morning. I’m with him in thinking that this is an educational program waiting to happen. There has to be some catch phrase out there (think “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle) to help people to remember to trash these things instead of flushing them. If we are worried about the resulting chemicals in the landfills making their way to the water table anyway, then provide consumers with a “personal haz-mat container” that could be identified and isolated at recycling centers and tell us to put them in the recycle bin instead of the trash bag.
Unneeded medications, whether prescription or over-the-counter, should never be thrown in the trash. They will leak into landfill and eventually find their way into the environment, in rivers and bays, and adversely affect fish and wildlife.
Pharmacies should take back any unneeded medications and recycle them properly. The pharma industry should establish the recycling process. My local Kaiser pharmacy will take back unwanted medications. Ask your pharmacy if they will take them back, and encourage them to do so if they are reluctant.
The words mountain and molehill spring to mind. A simple sticker, label or logo on every bottle or box indicating that it should be thrown in the trash surely should be enough?
Local nonprofits (such as Aid For Aids) and many church pantries accept prescription medicine donations from fellow patients and their estates. They also accept physicians’ samples. In many cases, there’s no need to destroy unused medicines that poor people need. And toxic waste removal is an expense, while donations are the opposite.