Drug disposal

[llcoolvad]

Last night I cleaned out a bureau in which I have all of my drug store-type stuff. Soap, razors, toothbrushes, toothpaste, cosmetics, pain relievers, vitamins, bandages, etc.  I pulled out all the expired meds as well as anything I never use or anything, well, sticky! I threw out all the non-toxic stuff, but now I have a pile of expired Rx meds, expired vitamins, and expired pain relievers. And I'm stumped. I don't want to flush all of it and have it enter the groundwater/sewage system. And I don't want it sitting in a landfill being all druggy-toxic.

I have some pretty old stuff in there that I've been just ignoring — I don't know the proper method for disposal of drugs. So today I did a little research. There's a lot of information directed at pharmacists out there, but a lot of them have instructions like "return to the manufacturer per their takeback program". Not helpful. So I called my pharmacy. I was told that they don't have any kind of recycling/disposal option there, and was instructed to just "throw them out". Not helpful. So I called my town DPW. I was transferred to the health department, who perkily advised me that I should speak to the substance abuse counselor, who was out today but I could leave a message and she'd get back to me. Yeah, I'm leaving my name and number on the local substance abuse hotline. Uh-huh. 

I read my town's elaborate information on recycling, and of course there's nothing about drug disposal. Mixing them in with kitty litter is certainly an option, but that seems to be merely to ensure that willful drug-seeking teenagers won't be picking through my trash to get high off of expired Vitamin C. So now I think my only option is to peel off the identifying information from the bottles and chuck them in the trash. That seems bad.  Any suggestions, anyone?