March 18th, 2009 Posted in Basic Green, Green Acts | No Comments »
March 18, 2009
[For March 15th Green Tip of the Week, scroll down a page or two.]
Did you see that Michelle Obama had the White House fountains dyed green, in honor of St. Patrick’s Day? It looked to me like liquid lime sherbet or lime jello.
Green water made me think of clean, unpolluted water.
That brought to mind recent newspaper stories about medications leaking into water supplies across the country. People are discovering higher levels of antibiotics and hormones, sometimes even parts-per-million of antidepressants or tranquilizers.
What was the deal? Would my tap water start tasting like Nyquil or Robitussin?
I also had some leftover pills I didn’t know what to do with. Some expired Valtrex (for cold sores). Some CoQ10 pills at 400mg, which I’ve second-guessed as too strong for me.
How should I dispose of these pills? If I just threw them out, they could seep from the town landfill into the water table and add to the water supply troubles.
I searched the Internet. Everyone seemed to agree on one point: I shouldn’t wash my leftover pills down the sink or flush them down the toilet. They might go to medicating the world’s water.
OK. What to do, then?
I selected “Outdated or Unwanted Medications” on www.earth911.org. Up came the Fairfield Hazardous Waste Department, at One Rod Highway.
So I called them. Nothing doing. They didn’t dispose of pills or know who did.
Next, my Ideal Bite newsletter told me I could take unused pills back to my pharmacy.
Good. I called CVS. The pharmacist said, “Wrap duct tape around the pill bottle and put it in the trash.”
Hm. Back to square one, the trash. So I called my internist’s office and spoke with the nurse.
“How can I dispose safely of unused medications? To keep them out of the water supply?”
The nurse said, “Old pills? We just throw them out.” But if I wanted, she continued, I could bring my old pills to the office and they would put them in with their medical waste, like their SHARPS, or their Biohazard Box. Thanks, but this didn’t seem like a productive answer for the entire community, I thought.
“Who would know about environmentally safe disposal of medicine?” I asked. The nurse thought I should contact the local health department.
So I called Town Hall, at the Fairfield Green. They didn’t know anything about disposing of medications. They thought maybe I should call the state health department.
Meanwhile, I found several companies on the Internet who made it their business to pack up boxes of expired medications at pharmacies and dispose of them in accord with approved environmental standards. One such company was called Stericycle.
I phoned Stericycle. Could individuals take advantage of their service? No. Did they have any suggestions for individuals who wanted to be environmentally responsible? They suggested I try my local pharmacy. Again the pharmacy.
In the middle of this quest, my daughter called. She lives in Indiana. “Oh, sure, Mom,” she said. “In our town, the pharmacies arrange a pick-up day for old medications, twice a year. It’s easy.”
Pharmacies.
I called other pharmacies from the yellow pages. Rite-Aid, Walgreens. Nothing. Then on the Internet I found a telephone number for the Director’s Office of the Connecticut branch of CVS. A nice voice named Susan told me, “Old prescription pick-ups? Oh, I think CVS is working on that.”
“May I speak with the CVS person in charge of working on that?”
“No, that’s a part of the corporate office that does not take outside calls.” Perhaps, she said, I would like to leave my phone number, and someone could call me back.
OK. I left my number.
Then I called the Connecticut State Health Department, or more precisely, the Department of Environmental Protection.
I tried my question once more. The lady on the phone consulted her co-worker, then returned to the phone with a suggestion for me.
She said I should not flush the medication down the toilet (aha!). Instead, I should open the pill bottle, pour vinegar over all the pills, then re-seal the pill bottle. The vinegar would dissolve the medication and make it safe.
How would it be safe? I asked. It just would, the State answered.
Hm. Really? That would work? I don’t think so?
I’m still waiting for a call-back from the state corporate offices of CVS.
Hello? Anybody out there have a suggestion?