WLSSD Disposes Old Or Unwanted Medications

DULUTH, Minn. – The Western Lake Superior Sanitary District in Duluth hosted a free collection event to help people clean out their medicine cabinets to get rid of unwanted medications in a safe and convenient way.

Old or unwanted medicine can pose many risks.

WLSSD began the medicine cabinet clean out in 2006 as an effort to stop the misuse medications.

Residents dropped off a variety of medications to the compost site at WLSSD.

Pharmacists were on site to help sort through all of the medicine to identify each one.

The effort is to prevent a variety of possible risks that pharmaceuticals may pose to the community and the environment.

“We don’t want those stock piling because there could be accidental poisonings,” said Karen Anderson, Director of Community Relations. “And as well some of these items maybe hazardous so we don’t want people to flush them down the toilet.

WLSSD staff say many pharmaceuticals do not break down in the waste water treatment process.

If those drugs get into local waters, it can be harmful to the habitat and drinking water.

Law enforcement was also on site to secure any addictive medications.

As opioid addictions continue to rise, St. Louis County sheriffs say this event helps keep the drugs out of the wrong hands.

“It’ll cut down on the availability of the drug, which cuts down on the overdoses. Alone in St. Louis County Sheriff’s patrol area last week, we had two days in a row we had opioid overdoses,” said Lt. Todd Abernathy of St. Louis County Sheriff’s Office.

Once all medications are collected and identified, they are packaged and transported to a facility to be burned.

WLSSD hosts the medicine clean out twice a year.

On average more than two hundred vehicles stop by to drop off medication.

More than 15 pounds of controlled substances and 300 pounds of non–controlled substances are typically collected at each event.

There are also twenty pharmaceutical drop off boxes for people to take their unwanted medications.

Click here for a list of locations.