This shop has been compensated by Inmar Intelligence and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #NationalPrescriptionDrugTakeBackDayCA
Do you have unwanted or expired medications laying around your house and you don’t know how to safely dispose of them? I got you! Today I’m talking about LifeInCheck Consumer Drug Take-Back™ and where you can find a LifeInCheck Consumer Drug Take-Back receptacle to safely dispose of any unwanted or expired medications.
To dispose of unused or expired medications, patients often flush them down the toilet, pour them down the drain, throw them in trash, or worse! Unfortunately, the end result is damage to our environment, drug diversion (sharing a prescription drug from whom it was prescribed to another person for illicit use), and drug abuse.
In an effort to assist in reducing these issues and bring awareness to the massive opioid crisis that is currently plaguing many families, LifeInCheck created a Consumer Drug Take-Back program that provides consumers with a safe option to discard their unwanted or expired medications in secure receptacles located across the US. To find a LifeInCheck Consumer Drug Take-Back receptacle near you, visit this link and simply enter your city and state or zip code.
With National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day on October 23, 2021, this is a great time to discuss this issue and bring awareness to it.
How to Safely Dispose of Unwanted or Expired Medications
With three children ages 3 and under, we have a lot of little hands to keep track of during the day and keep out of trouble. We’re very careful about any medications we have in our house and we think it’s very important to keep any prescribed or over-the-counter medications locked up in boxes so the kids can’t get to them.
We’re also very careful about any medications we need to dispose of and we feel that properly disposing of any unwanted or expired medications is very important as well.
We properly dispose of any unwanted or expired medications because we want the environment to be clean for our children in the future, but we are also aware that improperly disposing of unwanted or expired medications in the trash can lead to accidental poisonings (for curious children or pets) or drug overdoses.
Prescription and non-prescription drug take back receptacles are the best way to safely dispose of unwanted or expired medicines. All medications dropped off at these locations are destroyed.
Please do not flush or throw away unwanted or expired medications.
Why? For both environmental as well as public safety reasons. I didn’t know any of this until fairly recently, so please don’t feel bad if you’ve recently flushed or thrown away any unwanted or expired medications.
Environmental Reasons for Not Throwing Away or Flushing Medications
Medications that are flushed or poured down the drain can end up polluting local natural waters. Wastewater treatment systems and septic systems are NOT designed to remove medicinal chemicals from water and instead those pharmaceuticals can contaminate our lakes, streams, and oceans, thus impacting aquatic wildlife and ending up in our drinking water. 46 million Americans are exposed to trace amounts of narcotics in their drinking water.
As for throwing unwanted or expired medications away in the trash, if those medications make it to the landfill, they can leach into the ground soil and then it’s the same exact outcome as I explained above for the consequences of flushing – the pharmaceuticals leach into our waterways, impacting our wildlife and contaminating our drinking water.
Public Safety Reasons for Not Throwing Away Medications
Environmental reasons aside, throwing pharmaceuticals in the trash presents other hazards. Every day in America 1,000+ people are treated in emergency rooms for prescription drug abuse and an average 192 people die from drug overdoses.
I’ve thrown away my unwanted or expired medications into the trash before and I never thought about the path that those medications need to take in order to get to the landfill and just how many opportunities there are along the way for those unwanted or expired medications to get into the hands of a curious child, the mouth of a curious pet, or the hands of an adult who may abuse those drugs.
I never want a child (mine or anyone else’s) to accidentally ingest any of my unwanted or expired medications. I never want a pet (mine or anyone else’s) to accidentally get into any of my unwanted or expired medications. And I never want an adult to overdose on any prescription drugs that they inadvertently obtained from me because I failed to safely dispose of them.
And that’s why I’ll protect my community by safely disposing of all my unwanted or expired medications into a LifeInCheck Consumer Drug Take-Back receptacle.
What Is the LifeInCheck Consumer Drug Take-Back™ Program and How Does It Work?
In an effort to assist in reducing these issues and bringing awareness to the massive opioid crisis that is plaguing many families, LifeInCheck created a Consumer Drug Take-Back program that provides consumers with a safe option to discard their unused or outdated prescription medications in secure kiosks located across the US.
LifeInCheck Consumer Drug Take-Back receptacles are easy to find and easy to use.
To find one of many LifeInCheck Consumer Drug Take-Back receptacles near you, visit this link and simply enter your city and state or zip code. The kiosks are bright green in color and if you’re looking for one in a grocery store, be sure to look near or inside the store’s pharmacy. I located the kiosk nearest me inside my local grocery store’s pharmacy.
When I tried to use the secure kiosk to dispose of my unwanted or expired medication, I couldn’t open the drop-box because it was locked. If this also happens to you, don’t worry, simply inform the pharmacist – he or she has the key! They lock the boxes every night (that’s how secure they are!) and if you’re the first person using it in the morning, they may simply just need to know that you want to use it and it needs to be unlocked.
Be sure to check and see what is and what is not accepted at your secure kiosk. The LifeInCheck Consumer Drug Take-Back receptacle near me accepts unused or expired prescription medication (including Schedule II-V controlled substances), unused or expired over over-the-counter medication, and pet medication. I could check and see what is accepted both online when I looked up the location via my zip code and the printed instructions right on top of the receptacle.
The LifeInCheck Consumer Drug Take-Back receptacle near me does NOT accept Schedule I controlled substances, illegal drugs, needles, inhalers, thermometers, aerosol cans, or lotions/liquids.
National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day is on October 23, 2021, but you can protect your community and safely dispose of unwanted or expired medications into a LifeInCheck Consumer Drug Take-Back receptacle any day. So instead, use National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day as a goal date to try to go through any of your unwanted or expired medications and make a plan to safely dispose of them at a LifeInCheck Consumer Drug Take-Back receptacle!
Again, to find a LifeInCheck Consumer Drug Take-Back receptacle near you, visit this link and simply enter your city and state or zip code.