Turning in medications
If you have leftover medication, we can take it to be destroyed. It is important for the environment that you do not put the medication in the garbage or flush it down the toilet.
Deliver medicine waste: stickers off, needles in container
This is how to deliver medicine waste:
- boxes: strips only. The cardboard boxes can go with the waste paper. Do remove the labels from the boxes. The label contains privacy-sensitive information;
- bottles and tubes: remove the label on these as well for privacy reasons;
- Always put used needles in a needle container. You can often get a needle container for free from your pharmacy.
No medication in the water
It is important to separate medication waste, otherwise it will end up in the water. Not only in surface water, such as lakes and rivers, but also in groundwater. And that's bad for the environment.
Medicine residues in surface and groundwater can end up in drinking water. In addition, drug residues affect the plants and animals that live in the water. Painkillers, for example, damage the tissues of fish.
Source: pharmacy.com
What happens to the medication handed in?
You may be wondering: can't someone else use my old medicine? No, unfortunately they can't. Once a medication leaves the pharmacy, the pharmacist cannot guarantee that the medication was stored properly. And so the pharmacist cannot be sure if it is still safe for a subsequent user. Current laws and regulations do not allow reuse. Delivered medication is therefore destroyed.