You clean out your medicine cabinet and oops, expired. Even though we usually receive prescription drugs for exactly the amount we need, we always wind up with something that didn't get finished and now it is unwanted or expired. So what do we do with it?

First of all DON'T FLUSH IT. We got into this habit in order to keep the medications out of greedy little hands, but our rivers and streams and fish are getting seriously messed up through this practice. In fact, even when the drugs are placed into the trash, they can wind up getting into the environment.

So what's the solution? Well, there isn't a great one yet, which is why a grant has just been awarded to start dealing with "prudent disposal of unwanted medications". The money will be used to develop
mail back" and "take back" pilot programs.

In the meantime, there are some things that you can do, according to the Harvard Heart Letter.

1. Check with your pharmacy to see if they can take back medications.
2. Check with your city or state to see if there are any disposal or donation programs in place.
3. If you have to throw them out, scratch out your name/personal info but leave the label on. Next, make the drugs undesirable.
   1. Make dry medications wet. Inside the original waterproof/childproof containers, add a little bit of water and close tight.
   2. Make wet medications dry. Add kitty litter or flour to the bottle.
   3. Put medicine container inside another container like an empty tub of margarine or paper bag.

Rebecca says: I really wasn't sure of how I should deal with medicines until I started researching this. It makes sense. The medicines must be super sealed so that they don't leak into the environment and they must be "ruined" and hidden for safety reasons. I'm looking forward to these grants that will hopefully create a much better disposal situation for us all.