How to Safely Dispose of Expired Medications

Most homes in America have a stash of old pills sitting in a medicine cabinet, a bedside drawer, or a kitchen cupboard. Some are leftovers from a surgery five years ago. Some are antibiotics that were never finished. Some are over-the-counter pain pills that have lost their strength. All of them are a quiet hazard. A grandchild visiting for the weekend can find them. A pet can chew through a bottle. A houseguest with a problem can pocket a few. Even unused, old pills lose their effectiveness and can sometimes turn harmful as the chemicals break down. Cleaning out old medications once a year is one of the best safety habits you can build.

The Drug Enforcement Administration, called the DEA, runs a program called the National Prescription Drug Take Back Day. It happens twice a year, usually in late April and late October. On those Saturdays, hundreds of police stations, pharmacies, and government buildings across the country accept any pills, patches, or capsules with no questions asked. You drive up, hand over a bag of bottles, and drive away. The DEA then makes sure the medications are destroyed safely. The website takebackday.dea.gov has a search tool where you type in your zip code and find the nearest collection site for the next event.

If you cannot wait for a take-back day, many pharmacies have permanent drop boxes inside the store. Walgreens, CVS, and most supermarket pharmacies now keep a tall locked box near the prescription counter. You can drop bottles in any time the store is open. The box is checked and emptied by certified workers. There is no fee and no need to remove the labels, though most experts recommend you scratch out your name and prescription number with a marker first.

If no take-back option is nearby, the FDA has a list of medications that can be flushed down the toilet because they are dangerous if swallowed by anyone else. The list is short and includes mainly strong pain medications like fentanyl patches, oxycodone, and morphine. For everything else, mix the pills with coffee grounds or used cat litter inside a sealed plastic bag and throw the bag in the regular trash. The mixture makes the pills unappealing to pets, children, and people who might dig through the trash. Whatever method you use, the goal is the same: get old medications out of the house and out of reach of anyone who could be harmed.