How Improper Drug Disposal Impacts Communities

July 6, 2023 | Pharmaceutical Waste Disposal

Many people grew up in households where it was common to throw out old prescriptions in the trash, flush them, or to do nothing and leave them in the medicine cabinet for years on end. Medications that are improperly disposed of can end up in the wrong hands, in landfills, or in water supplies. Community members must be made aware of the severe potential complications that occur from improper pharmaceutical waste disposal. 

Improper Drug Disposal Leads to Drug Abuse, Misuse, and Addiction 

Drug diversion, the illegal distribution or abuse of prescription drugs, is one of the main contributors leading to the opioid epidemic. By leaving unused prescriptions in an unsecured medicine cabinet instead of properly disposing them, you are leaving the door open for diversion or accidental overdose from a child.

When medication is used as prescribed, it can help provide pain relief, treat symptoms, and manage health conditions. But when using expired medication or medication that’s not prescribed to you, it can cause serious health risks and it can lead to addiction. Drug addiction, also called substance use disorder, is a disease that affects a person’s brain and behavior and leads to the inability to control the use of medicine. It’s crucial that instead of storing unwanted medication in a medicine cabinet or bedside table, drugs are being disposed of in a drug disposal system to ensure the medication isn’t ending up in the wrong hands.

Unused Prescriptions Lead to Accidental Poisoning

By safely disposing of medications, you can also prevent accidental ingestion. Medications are the leading cause of child poisoning today. Every year, more than 60,000 children are treated due to accidental or unsupervised ingestions. Holding on to expired and unwanted medications creates unnecessary health risks for children and specifically for older children. This increases the risk for diversion and intentional misuse that can lead to addiction. Children are not the only ones at risk. According to the National Center for Health Statistics, drug overdose deaths more than tripled among people age 65 and older during the past two decades. In total, more than 5,000 seniors died of drug overdoses in 2020.

Improper Drug Disposal Causes Negative Impacts on the Environment 

While not properly disposing of unwanted medication is harmful to community members, it is also harmful to the environment. Many people may flush unwanted pharmaceuticals down the toilet or throw them in the trash to keep them out of reach, but those methods harm our environment. Flushing causes irreversible damage and there is no way to remove 100% of pharmaceuticals from our water.

So, while it might seem as though flushing is a solution to getting rid of unwanted medications, you are adding to the environmental contamination of our waterways. A study done on the Pharmaceutical Pollution of the World’s Rivers monitored 1,052 sampling sites along 258 rivers in 104 countries of all continents, thus representing the pharmaceutical fingerprint of 471.4 million people. It was found the contaminants in surface water poses a threat to environmental and/or human health in more than a quarter of the studied locations globally.

How to Reduce Drug Use in a Community with Rx Destroyer

You may be aware that keeping expired or unused medications may be dangerous to you and those coming or living in your household, but do you know how to properly dispose of unwanted medications? Rx Destroyer’s ready-to-use chemical drug disposal is suitable for solid and liquid medications including pills, capsules, patches, powders, and liquids.

Non-retrievable drug deactivation actively protects people, communities, and the environment by eliminating the risk of wrongful misuse or incorrect disposal. Rx Destroyer drug disposal systems are easy, cost effective, and simply the most comprehensive solution in preventing drug abuse, drug diversion, and stockpiling. Our solution is non-toxic and space-optimizing for home use, our caps are child resistant providing security in your home to those who may be vulnerable, and to top it off Rx Destroyer is reusable!