Why you should never dispose of expired medications this way
As we enter the last few weeks of winter, many of us will begin preparations for the big spring clean. However, experts warn that when it comes to your medicine cabinet, there’s only one way to properly dispose of expired and unwanted medications.
More than simply taking up space in your cupboard, out-of-date drugs can be incredibly dangerous, Toni Riley from the Return Unwanted Medicines national scheme (the RUM Project), explains.
“The ingredients may not be active, so they might be ineffective or could potentially make you sick,” she tells ABC Radio Canberra.
“The active ingredients can go off easily. Medicines are designed to be stored in specific temperature conditions and most of our homes don't comply with that and where people keep their medicines is not ideal.”
In addition, having expired drugs in the house could be catastrophic for the little ones in your life. “We know about 5,000 children are hospitalised each year because they’ve taken medicines they’ve found in their own homes,” Riley explains. “So the less we have hanging around the better.”
What you might not have known, however, is that you should never throw your unwanted medications in the bin or flush them down the toilet, as they inevitably end up in landfill and can wreak havoc on the environment.
Instead, Riley says you should collect all your expired and unneeded medications, supplements, gels and creams, place them in a bag, and drop them off at your local pharmacy. This way, they will be disposed of properly.
“There’s no questions, it’s all very private, it just goes straight into the RUM bin ... and then sealed up and sent off to a high-temperature incinerator.”