Please take a minute to view this short video on the proper way to dispose of medication.  It is not acceptable to dump them down the toilet or into the sink.  They make their way back into our drinking water and will also get into the lakes and streams.  This issue is relevant to everyone’s personal health safety and the protection of our environment.

http://www.smarxtdisposal.net/

If you cannot access the video, the steps are listed below, courtesy of The SMAR_XT DISPOSAL campaign’s website.  This campaign is “designed to raise awareness about the potential environmental impact from improperly disposed of medications and to provide proactive guidance through proper disposal alternatives”:

Follow your medication prescriber’s instructions and use all medications as instructed. If you do not use all of your prescribed or over-the-counter medication, you can take a few small steps to make a huge impact in safeguarding lives and protecting the environment by disposing of unused medicines properly:

DO NOT FLUSH unused medications and DO NOT POUR them down a sink or drain. Be Proactive and Dispose of Unused Medication In Household Trash. When discarding unused medications, ensure you protect children and pets from potentially negative effects:

• Pour medication into a sealable plastic bag. If medication is a solid (pill, liquid capsule, etc.), crush it or add water to dissolve it.
• Add kitty litter, sawdust, coffee grounds (or any material that mixes with the medication and makes it less appealing for pets and children to eat) to the plastic bag.
• Seal the plastic bag and put it in the trash. 
• Remove and destroy ALL identifying personal information (prescription label) from all medication containers before recycling them or throwing them away.

Check for Approved State and Local Collection Programs. Another option is to check for approved state and local collection alternatives such as community based household hazardous waste collection programs. In certain states, you may be able to take your unused medications to your community pharmacy or other location for disposal. Consult your pharmacist with any questions.

NOTE:  Please view their website for a list of medications that ARE alowed to be placed into the toilet.

You may or may not be aware of the problem with the plastic grocery bags that we get at the grocery stores. It takes a plastic bag 1000 years to break down in a landfill. Then once the particles are broken down, they will not and cannot be used by anything. They will sit there in our earth forever. Somewhere between 500 billion and a trillion plastic bags are consumed worldwide each year. Of those, millions end up in the litter stream outside of landfills.

Many people and stores (like the Whole foods Market-click here for the link on the story) are taking a stand against plastic bags and are encouraging people to use reusable bags instead.

Many local stores are starting to sell reusable PolyPropylene bags. These are great, but they cannot be washed in the washing machine when they get dirty. There is a website that sells canvas bags for 99 cents each! For bigger, heavy-duty bags with a 4 1/2″ wide bottom that are only $2.89 (click here for link). Their website is www.cheaptotes.com.

I encourage you to please think about the impact you are making on the earth when you take home 10-20 plastic bags from each shopping trip that you make. One purchase of the canvas totes will last you for years to come!

If you don’t have the money to buy new reusable bags, just take your used plastic bags from your last trip with you to the store and reuse them!