Safe medication and sharps disposal

Unsecured storage of medication in homes has contributed to the national epidemic of prescription drug misuse. To combat this, community members can safely dispose of leftover or expired medications or used medical needles and syringes at participating locations within Monterey County to reduce the chances of misuse. Find a convenient location near you.

To learn what you can put in the bins and how to prepare medications for disposal, visit dontrushtoflush.org.

Why use medication disposal bins?

Unneeded drugs that sit in your cabinet can get into the hands of children or adults who shouldn’t have them. If you throw medications in the trash or toilet, they may leach into the ground in a landfill or pollute local water supplies. Water treatment plants can’t always remove medical chemicals. But medications left in disposal bins will be destroyed safely.

To learn what you can put in the bins and how to prepare medications for disposal, visit dontrushtoflush.org.

Safe disposal of sharps

By state law, needles, syringes, lancets, and other sharp medical items also shouldn’t go in the garbage or recycling. They could cut someone’s skin and infect them with germs.

Go to a pharmacy or hazardous waste disposal site to get a special sharps disposal container that protects people from accidental needle sticks. Take the containers home, put the sharps in them, and then bring the full container to an approved drop-off location.

Visit the County of Monterey Health Department website for an up-to-date list of locations where you can pick up and return sharps containers. To learn about ways to request containers by mail, visit the CalRecycle website.