Easy Steps for Getting Rid of Expired Medication

It's okay to toss some old drugs in the trash, but others need special handling

Consumer Reports
By Ginger Skinner
October 07, 2015

At least a few expired or unwanted medications are lurking in your medicine cabinet. But if you missed your local Take Back event—held twice a year as part of the Drug Enforcement Administration’s National Take-Back Initiative, there are other ways to dispose of your old meds, year round.

Take Precautions
Leftover medications can put you and others at risk for misuse and accidental overdose. Tossing most medications into your household trash will work just fine, provided you take a few precautions. First, remove the drug from its original container and mix it with a substance that makes them less recognizable such as coffee grounds, kitty litter, or sawdust. Then place the mixture in a sealable plastic bag or other container that won’t leak, and put it in the trash. Before you discard the prescription bottle, scratch away the personal information on the label—or remove the label.

Take the Drugs Back to the Pharmacy
If you don’t want to throw throw away expired medication, or your old drugs may potentially be dangerous if a small child were to obtain them, consider instead taking them back to your pharmacy. Thanks to new DEA regulations, big-box stores, pharmacies, hospitals, clinics, and long-term-care centers can take these back any time of the year, no appointment needed. (Hard to imagine, but it used to be illegal for those places to accept unused narcotic drugs.) Some locations may also offer mail-back programs. Target, for instance, provides return bags for mailing unused medications directly to a location for safe disposal.

To find a pharmacy near you, try DisposeMyMeds.org. The DEA can also help you locate authorized drop off centers, including hospitals, clinics, and long-term care centers in your neighborhood. To find a collection site, call the DEA’s Registration Call Center at 800-882-9539 or visit DEAdiversion.usdoj.gov and search for "drug disposal."

Flush Very Dangerous Drugs Down the Drain
Can’t get to a pharmacy or another location to dispose of more dangerous drugs such as the narcotic painkillers codeine, fentanyl (Duragesic and generic), hydrocodone (Vicodin and generic), meperidine (Demorol and generic), morphine, and oxycodone (Oxycontin, Percocet, and generic)? The FDA recommends flushing these down the toilet.

No one usually likes this idea because of the risk of contaminating the water supply and potentially harming aquatic life, but the FDA recommends doing so if no other disposal option is possible so that the medications don’t get into the hands of children.

Other Exceptions
Asthma inhalers, insulin syringes or any other syringes, medications containing iodine, marijuana, and mercury thermometers are not accepted at most collection sites. In some parts of the country, you can put asthma inhalers in the trash or recycling. But in others, they are considered hazardous waste and can’t be tossed in the regular trash. For proper disposal instructions, contact your local sanitation company, recycling facility, or the health department. For syringe-disposal information, call 800-643-1643 or go to SafeNeedleDisposal.org. For other medications not accepted under DEA regulations, check with your pharmacist.

These materials were made possible by a grant from the state Attorney General Consumer and Prescriber Education Grant Program, which is funded by a multistate settlement of consumer fraud claims regarding the marketing of the prescription drug Neurontin (gabapentin).