Should You Flush Your Drugs Down the Toilet?

The greenest way to get rid of old prescription meds.

By Nina Shen Rastogi
Updated Tuesday, Dec. 1, 2009, at 12:05 PM ET

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I've been hearing a lot about how prescription medications and the other drugs we take end up in the water supply. It got me wondering: What's the most environmentally responsible way to dispose of old pills and cough syrups?

It's true: A wide range of pharmaceuticals have been found in our lakes, streams, and drinking water. Scientists are trying to puzzle out what effects these drugs might have on people and wildlife, but there's still a lot we don't know. Even without hard evidence on the impacts of long-term exposure to trace contamination from our water, most government organizations now recommend that you dispose of old medications in the trash, rather than the toilet. (Of course, that doesn't address the fact that, according to most estimates, the vast majority of pharmaceutical pollution comes through our bodily excretions.)