Question

I want each of you to research your city/town’s plans for disposing hazardous waste (including, if applicable, its policy of disposing of drugs). How does it differ from the City of Boston? Did any items, that were listed as hazardous material, surprise you? If you live in the City of Boston, please research another city or town in Massachusetts.

Answer 1

Hazardous waste can be treated by chemical, thermal, biological, and physical methods. Chemical methods include ion exchange, precipitation, oxidation and reduction, and neutralization. Among thermal methods is high-temperature incineration, which not only can detoxify certain organic wastes but also can destroy them.Simply defined, a hazardous waste is a wastewith properties that make it dangerous or capable of having a harmful effect on human health or the environment.
Drug disposal is the discarding of drugs. Individuals commonly dispose of unused drugs that remain after the end of medical treatment. Health care organizations dispose of drugs on a larger scale for a range of reasons, including having leftover drugs after treating patients and discarding of expired drugs. Failure to properly dispose of drugs creates opportunities for others (of whom the drug is unintended) to take them inappropriately. Inappropriate disposal of drugs can also cause drug pollution. People dispose of drugs in various ways; even organizations with expertise on drugs may give inconsistent information to consumers about drug disposal.
Medication waste includes both hazardous and non-hazardous waste, controlled substances, and expired pharmaceuticals.

Medication waste can come from multiple levels in the drug's lifespan. First, it can come from production factories from where they were created. This includes unwanted pharmaceutical ingredients and materials that can no longer be used in the drug manufacturing process. Second, medication waste can be generated from healthcare facilities including hospitals, clinics, and pharmacies. Medication waste from this source can be from over prescribing of drugs from healthcare providers, hospital labs, expired drugs, opened drug containers and partially used medications. Furthermore, these wastes can include materials, such as syringes, vials, IV bags, and tubing that contain excess drugs or contaminated in the process of handling hazardous pharmaceuticals, such as chemotherapy drugs. Some states have regulations that require healthcare facilities to destroy unused medications. Lastly, pharmaceutical waste can come from excessive consumption of over-the-counter medications from patients.
Sometimes normal use of a drug can result in waste. For example, when someone uses a dermal patch, after the patch is used, it will still retain significant potency, necessitating safe disposal.

In the United States, used prescriptions are serious safety concerns because they can be accidentally ingested, overdosed or diverted for illegal use.

To address these concerns, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) created National Prescription Drug Take-Back Days that occurs twice annually in April and October. These Take Back Days are part of a mission to create safe medication disposal sites, prevent drug diversion or transfer of the prescribed drug for illicit use, and provide education for the public.In April 2017, the 13th National Drug Take Back Day included 5,498 collection sites across the country and 450 tons unused or expired prescription medicines were collected. Additionally, The National Association of Drug Diversion Investigators (NADDI) sponsors a website to locate Rx Drug Drop Boxes for safe medication disposal outside of National Prescription Drug Take-Back Days.

Secure and Responsible Drug Disposal Act of 2010

The "Secure and Responsible Drug Disposal Act of 2010" was proposed to amend the "Controlled Substances Act" created in 1970 which prohibits the disposal of controlled substances unless a member of law enforcement has authorization from the DEA to directly receive and dispose of the controlled substance. This bars drug take-back programs from being able to receive and dispose of controlled medications for members of the public, which in turn can lead to the potential misuse of these drugs. Misuse of prescription medications has been a growing epidemic, with deaths from opioids quadrupling since 1999. It was shown that in 2006, about 1/3 of new prescription drug abusers were 12-17-year-olds. With these statistics, Congress decided to take an active role in trying to make drug take-back programs more readily available. Therefore, the "Secure and Responsible Drug Disposal Act of 2010" was created to allow the Attorney General permission in creating new policies to provide citizens “convenient and safe” disposal of their unwanted medications to authorized people or facilities. Congress created this act with a goal of preventing drug diversion and environmental harm/pollution by these drugs.

In addition to the drug disposal of 2012, other national agencies have also promoted the use of the drug take-back programs. In 2011, White House announced the first national Prescription Abuse Prevention Plan. The Prescription Abuse Prevention Plan expanded support to the prescription drug disposal programs and decreased the supply of unused prescription drugs. The Environmental Protection Agency also encouraged the use of prescription drug disposal programs with guidelines for household disposal of medication and recommendations on the incineration of the household pharmaceutical product. The American Pharmacist Association and Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America also partnered with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to raise awareness for consumers to properly dispose of medication. The campaign encouraged consumers to not flush unused medications or pour them down the sink. The campaign also recognized pharmacists' role to inform consumers of the different disposal techniques and which medications are appropriate for flushing.