On Tuesday, the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a press release announcing new guidelines for proper disposal of prescription drugs.
The webpage with the guideline details includes a video clip demonstrating one way to prepare no-longer-needed drugs for disposal.
The guidelines recommend checking for local community take-back programs for prescription drugs -- the Division of Solid Waste Services does not offer this, and I am not aware of any other take-back opportunities in the greater Washington, DC, area. (If you do, please let me know!)
Our instructions for prescription drug disposal -- which mirror the Federal ones -- are on our website. We also have a few medicine recycling organizations included in our Use It Again guide.
Please remember to avoid "sea burial" in your toilet or sink for most medications. Why? Because it's best to keep those drugs out of our waste water stream, and ultimately our environment.
