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How to safely dispose of unwanted medication

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There's a correct way to safely dispose of unwanted or expired medication.

Are you the kind of person who throws unwanted medication and pills in the bin? Perhaps you’re someone who flushes unwanted tablets down the toilet or throws them down the sink. Or maybe your family holds on to unwanted medication and saves them for a rainy day when you or a loved one gets sick. If you’re doing any of the above, you need to stop.

Toni Riley, Pharmacist & Project Manager at Return Unwanted Medicines says all unwanted and expired medication should be returned to a pharmacy so they can be safely disposed of.

“The only place to dispose of your medicine appropriately is to take it back to your local pharmacy and have them put it in their returns/unwanted medicine bin,” she told Starts at 60

Riley noted that just 18 per cent of people in a recent General Population Survey were aware that unwanted or expired medication should be returned to a pharmacy, while 82 per cent either threw medication in the bin or flushed them down a toilet or sink.

“Two things can happen when things end up in landfill. One, it will eventually just filter down into our waterway and into our water,” she said. “The other thing is you never really know who’s running around rubbish tips, digging around and looking for things. That’s the concern.”

Recent research published in the Australian Prescriber has found 704 tonnes of unwanted medicines were returned to pharmacy and that around $11.6 million worth of unwanted and expired medicines were collected. Of those, most were for acute conditions and a total of 30,422 items including prescribed medicines, dose administration aids, over-the-counter medicines and complementary medicines were reordered.

The top five drugs found were Paracetamol, Salbutamol (asthma puffers), Glyceryl trinitrate (blood pressure and heart conditions), Cefalexin (antibiotics) and Metoclopramide (used for nausea and vomiting). Just 36 per cent of the drugs returned were expired.

“Paracetamol and Salbutamol inhalers are the most commonly dispensed medicines on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) so by the of average, you’d kind of expect they’d be the most common ones that come back,” Riley noted.

She said the best thing for people to do with their unwanted medication was to return it to a pharmacy.

“You might be safe, but what about your grandchildren who come and visit and might find your tablets and get into them? That’s a concern.,” she said. “The whole point of it that we’re really concerned about is safety in the home, safety for yourself so you don’t get confused, safety for your visitors so they don’t access medicines inappropriately and environmental protection.

“Don’t put them in the rubbish bin, don’t put them down the drain or the toilet, look after the environment. There’s a whole lot of messages associated with this.”

The Australian Prescriber said to reduce the millions of dollars Aussies spend on unwanted medication each year, it was up to everyone to reduce medication waste and be aware of the actual amount of medication required at the time of prescribing and dispensing.

What do you think? Did you know how to safely dispose of unwanted or expired medication? How often do you end up with more medication than you need?

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