Do you have leftover medicine? You might not have known about this…

Have you ever opened your medicine cabinet and there are so many bottles you have to read the labels so you know which bottle to take out? You are not alone, most people simply don’t clean out their medicine cabinet as frequently as they should and more often than not, they keep certain medication as a “just in case” back up. The problem is medication is not designed to last indefinitely and they have expiry dates same as milk and bread.

However unlike milk and bread you should not dispose of your unwanted medication through general waste or sewage options. Instead there is a new project that can take care of medication disposal for you!

When you dispose medicines down the drain or into your normal bin, they can end up in our waterways or landfills and when they break down they can become very damaging to our environment. It can contribute to pollution of our waterways and in general should be discouraged. Instead you can take your unwanted medicine to your local pharmacy and allow them to dispose of the them safely.

As if you don’t already have enough reasons to get involved with this project, one of the leading causes of poisoning within the home is not from chemicals like bleach but from out of date medication.

Follow these 4 steps to safely return your unwanted medicine:

1. Go to your home medicine cabinet.
2. Check all expiry dates on medication bottles and separate all expired medicines into a container for return.
3. Double check that you actually need all the medicines – separate those medicines no longer needed into the container for return.
4. Take the container to your local pharmacy for disposal.

You can read more about returning unwanted medicine here on the RUM Project website.