Do Not Return: Guidance for Customers

To assure program safety and legality, these products are NOT accepted through the medicine return programs. Recommended disposal practices are listed below. To find out what you can return, go to the YES/NO List.

Needles and syringes

• For safe disposal of needles and syringes, ask your pharmacist or contact your local Health Department. www.doh.wa.gov/LHJMap/LHJMap.htm
• Used needles, injectors, EpiPens, lancets or other objects capable of puncturing skin are infectious, capable of transmitting disease. These “biohazardous” or “biomedical” wastes have special regulations for safe transportation and disposal. Disposal containers for needles are not opened by workers because the risk of infection by “needle stick” is too great.
• Most unwanted medicines are not infectious and have completely different regulations for safe transportation and disposal. To assure chemical safety, all our Medicine Return Program containers may be opened and inspected by workers. Keep needles out of the Medicine Return Program to keep our workers safe.

Thermometers

• For safe disposal of mercury fever thermometers, contact your local household hazardous waste collection program www.ecy.wa.gov/programs/swfa/mrw/mrw_contacts.html or call the Department of Ecology at 1-800-RECYCLE (1-800-732-9253).
• Old fever thermometers contain mercury, the silvery liquid inside the glass tube. Medicine Return Program waste is disposed through incineration. In an incinerator, mercury vaporizes and may escape into the environment through the smokestack. Preventing mercury pollution is critical because it is toxic to humans and animals. For more information about mercury, see http://www.govlink.org/hazwaste/mercury/index.html.

Aerosol cans

• For safe disposal of aerosol cans, contact your local household hazardous waste collection program, www.ecy.wa.gov/programs/swfa/mrw/mrw_contacts.html or call the Department of Ecology at 1-800-RECYCLE (1-800-732-9253).
• Aerosol cans often use flammable compressed gases as propellants. For safe transportation and disposal, aerosol cans cannot be mixed with other medicine wastes. The Medicine Return Program does not accept aerosol cans, even if they contain medicine such as Tinactin antifungal spray, first aid spray, or sunburn relief spray.
• Inhalers are not aerosol cans and are accepted because they are small, have non-flammable propellants, and the pressure is low.

IV Bags

• For safe disposal of IV Bags, ask your pharmacist or medical clinic for assistance.
• IV bags are not a strong, leak-proof container for dropping down the collection bin opening or transportation. During shipment with other Medicine Return Program waste or when it lands in the bucket, the bag could break, spilling liquid over other drugs in the bucket. Some IV bags also have a needle attached and need to be managed separately with infectious or biohazardous waste.

Bloody or infectious waste

• Contact your local Health Department for help disposing of bloody or infectious waste www.doh.wa.gov/LHJMap/LHJMap.htmor call the Department of Ecology at 1-800-RECYCLE (1-800-732-9253).
• Bloody or infectious waste (also called “biohazardous” or “biomedical” waste) may have the capacity to transmit disease. Generally, regulated biomedical waste must be treated by steam sterilization, incineration, or other approved methods. Medicine Return Program waste management processes are designed to safely handle chemical risks from medicines, not infectious wastes.

Personal care products

• Most personal care products may be disposed into the regular garbage. If you have products in aerosol cans, hair color, hair spray, nail polish or nail polish remover, contact your local household hazardous waste program for disposal.
• Personal care products are lotions, soap, shampoo, suntan lotion, deodorants, cosmetics and other non-medicated products you apply to your body.  Compared to the cost of regular garbage disposal, safe disposal of unwanted medicine is expensive. Disposing of personal care products or other trash in the Medicine Return Program is simply too expensive.

Empty containers

• Empty containers may be disposed into the regular garbage or possibly recycled. Check your local recycling rules to find out which plastic bottles can be recycled. Keeping empty containers out of the Medicine Returns program helps keep disposal costs down. To protect your privacy, you can peel off the prescription label or use a permanent marker to cover your personal information.

Electronics

• No electronics such as glucose meters, blood pressure meters, pedometers, or digital thermometers.

Business waste

• Under state and federal law, pharmaceutical waste from businesses may not be accepted with household wastes. For guidance about proper management of pharmaceutical waste, contact Washington’s Department of Ecology http://www.ecy.wa.gov/programs/hwtr/pharmaceuticals/ or call or call the Department of Ecology at 1-800-RECYCLE (1-800-732-9253)..