If your green lifestyle is pointing your towards holistic healing and your days as a pill popper are behind you, you may be wondering what the heck to do with all of those prescription drugs in your medicine chest.

Flushing your expired or unwanted drugs is a no-no. It may keep your pharmaceuticals out of the wrong hands but traces of prescription drugs have been found to pollute rivers, streams and lakes. I’ll have the salmon but hold the Viagra, please.

But don’t let the no flushing rule stop you from cleaning out your medicine cabinet. By following the tips below you can learn how to responsibly get rid of expired or unwanted pills, capsules, cough syrups and other prescription drugs.

1. Check with your state’s environmental website for specific guidelines for where you live. Rules and regulations on drug disposal vary from state to state, especially if you are seeking to dispose of controlled substances, like those pain killers you got after you had your wisdom teeth removed.

2. Ask your local pharmacy if it offers a prescription take-back program. Mine has discontinued its program but was able to give me the name of an organization that collects drugs in my area. (If you live in or near San Francisco, contact BayWise.org for a drop spot near you.

3. Costco members can bring unwanted medications to one of its pharmacies.

4.   Check Earth 911’s database for collection programs for drugs and other hard-to-dispose-of items in your neighborhood.

The bad news is that not all communities offer these services, and if you live in the middle of nowhere you may have no option but to toss your pharmaceuticals. Keep in mind that this should be your last resort.

If you must throw prescriptions away, be sure to recycle the empty bottles (and to remove labels with your personal info before doing so.) Medication should be made unusable before ending up in the trash so they don’t wind up in the wrong hands, or worse, being consumed by children.

To make medicine unusable, crush pills or dissolve capsules in water. Mix in with kitty litter, coffee grounds, or other unappealing kitchen waste. Finally, use duct tape on any containers and place in a sealed bag before tossing in the trash so kids or pets who might get into the trash won’t be accidentally poisoned.

Tags: disposing of pharmaceuticals, drug disposal, drug take back, Earth 911, ecoHabits, hazardous waste, pharmacy, prescription drug, recycle

This entry was posted on Monday, March 23rd, 2009 at 4:00 am and is filed under Health, disposing of pharmaceuticals, ecoHabits, family. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.