The Red, White, and Green

In many cases, being a good citizen of the planet involves a lot of clear-cut decisions: Put that can in the recycling bin, use a canvas tote instead of taking a plastic bag at the grocery store, buy organic when possible. But what’s the green way to dispose of medications? There isn’t an easy answer, unfortunately. An Associated Press report last year found that pharmaceuticals — including antibiotics, antidepressants, and sex hormones — have already found their way into the drinking water supplies of at least 41 million Americans, with potentially dire consequences for human health and wildlife.

One way the drugs end up in the water is unavoidable, at present: People take drugs, metabolize them, and the trace amounts not absorbed by their bodies end up being flushed down the toilet. But medications — prescription and OTC — have also found their way into our drinking water via simple lack of education about proper disposal methods. With all the commercials for Abilify and Viagra, when’s the last time you saw a public service announcement telling you the proper way to throw out those unused drugs? I’ve never seen one. A staggering 3.7 billion prescriptions are filled each year in the US alone (as well as 3.3 billion nonprescription medications, according to the AP report) — that’s a heck of a lot of drugs to be casually tossed in the trash or flushed down the toilet.

Here is how to responsibly throw out unused drugs, according to the Office of National Drug Control Policy. (The federal guidelines are for prescription medications, but can also be applied to OTC drugs.):

• Don’t flush. Unless the label specifically tells you to, do not flush leftover medications. For information on drugs that should be flushed, visit the FDA website.
• Take advantage of community drug take-back programs. Call your city or county government’s household trash and recycling service and ask if a drug take-back program is available in your community.
• Mix drugs with an undesirable substance, like coffee grounds or cat litter, and place in a sealable bag before throwing in the trash. This ensures that drugs won’t fall into the wrong hands, or leach into groundwater.

A footnote: How bad does the prescription drug pollution problem have to get before we start examining the root of our nation’s ever-expanding appetite for prescription drugs? Maybe if prescription drug advertising were banned, less people would be asking their doctors for unnecessary prescriptions. And maybe if people took better care of themselves — healthier food, adequate rest, and regular exercise — they wouldn’t need so many medications to begin with. But maybe I’m asking too much.

–Jennifer Grayson

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