Household Medication Disposal
- Oct 6, 2018
- 1 min read
Today Americans are taking more prescription drugs, and when these prescriptions are expired, or no longer needed many people struggle on how to properly dispose them. In result of this it has caused a lot of heartache. There are many resources out there that can guide you to the right steps of proper disposal.
One way to dispose medications improperly is to dump them into the toilet or down the sink. Recent studies have shown that medications can harm the environment. They discovered it can harm fish and other aquatic life and eventually end up in our drinking water. Most water treatment plants do not remove medications, and end up places where they shouldn’t be.
Sometimes people will keep undeeded medications when they are unsure of how to dispose of them. Overtime they accumulate and are easily accessible to anyone in the household. This many lead to people misusing medications or accidental overdose in children and adults. It's important to take the steps to dispose of medications as soon as they expire or when no longer needed.
If you have any medications that you need to get rid of, take the time to dispose them properly. The Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) has put together an interactive Household Drug Take Back Map. The map allows you to click where you live and it will list locations that offer medication disposal.
If you are in an area with little to no locations that will take any medications watch this video made by the DEQ on how to dispose of them.
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