Medication Disposal

Don’t dump drugs in the toilet or trash! Bring your expired medications back to our pharmacy for safe disposal.

Many prescription medications, over-the-counter products and health supplements remain in medicine cabinets and kitchen drawers long after their expiry date, while others are simply unused.

So why not just throw them away in the garbage or flush them down the toilet? Medications in garbage can pose a hazard to pets and wildlife, and beyond that, can infiltrate groundwater, eventually entering drinking water and the food chain. Leachate, the rainwater that percolates through the landfill and collects at the bottom, has been shown to contain antidepressants, antibiotics, steroids, hormones, heart and asthma medications and painkillers.

Drugs flushed down the toilet enter the waste water treatment system, which is not designed to filter out the complex chemicals that make up today’s medicines. Contaminated water gets released to the environment and negatively affects aquatic organisms, fish and other wildlife. Learn more on our blog.

What happens when you bring expired medications to us?

  • Medication Returns Program: All medications are safely incinerated, preventing them from entering landfills, sewers and the environment at large. We request that, whenever possible, you remove drugs from their packaging, and recycle the packaging appropriately, before bringing medications to the pharmacy for disposal.
  • Recycling of vials, bottles and lids: If you are unable to recycle your lids, bottles and/or medication vials, or you prefer to return unused or expired medications in their original packaging, we will happily recycle them for you.
  • Diabetic Needle Disposal Program: With the purchase of 100 BD syringes or pen needles, you will receive a certified biohazard needle disposal container free of charge. (If you are not buying needles, you may still purchase a container for a nominal charge.) Filled containers may be returned to a London Drugs pharmacy and we will dispose of the contents in a way that is safe for the public and the environment.

 

For more information visit the Government of Canada website:
http://www.healthycanadians.gc.ca/health-sante/medicine-medicament/disposal-defaire-eng.php