What do you do with you expired medications?

Do you have expired medications in your medicine cabinet? Confused about how to dispose of them? We can help!

Throwing expired medication into the garbage creates an environmental hazard.   Medications that end up in the garbage can end up in our soil, our water, then entering the plants and animals, eventually entering our own food chain.    Flushing medications down the toilet used to be considered the best option.   We now know that flushed medications end up back in our water supply causing an accumulation in the freshwater fish that inhabit our streams, rivers and lakes.    Just another environmental hazard.

What do I with my expired medications?

Bring all of your expired medication back to your pharmacy!!   That includes all over-the-counter medications as well as prescription medications.  Your pharmacy will ensure that your medications are disposed of in a way that dose not pose a risk to our environment or the health of others!

In Alberta the EnviRx program offers an organized system of safe disposal.   Alberta pharmacies have participated on a voluntary basis, to collect these “dead drugs”.    These collections of dead drugs are then routinely collected by a company contracted to transport the waste to a disposal site, approved by the provincial government, where the dead drugs are incinerated at extremely high temperature, where even the smoke from incineration is scrubbed of any harmful residues.

Your pharmacist is an active participant in preserving our environment for today and generations to come.   For more information about the EnviRx program visit this link to the Alberta Pharmacists Association (RxA) and the EnviRx program.

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