No site in Yuba-Sutter to dispose of prescription drugs

Yuba-Sutter now lacks a place to dispose of prescription and over-the-counter medications after its sole collection site suspended the program indefinitely.

The Yuba City Police Department had served as a collection site since 2007 but is suspending the program because of regulatory and operational constraints, said Alyson Burleigh, contract staff to the Regional Waste Management Authority. If a local program resumes, it will be promoted through Recology Yuba-Sutter.

Burleigh could not provide further details for the suspension. Police spokeswoman Shawna Pavey said the department did not have any information on the program or its suspension.

Residents were interested and had been participating in the program, turning in about 1,300 pounds of medical waste every year since the program started in late 2007, Burleigh said.

There are no alternate collection sites for medication disposal and the substances cannot be accepted at the household hazardous waste facility.

No law forbids households from putting pharmaceuticals in the trash if the medications are not considered hazardous waste. Usually the only home pharmaceuticals that fall under that category are prescribed for chemotherapy.

Residents wanting to dispose of unwanted medication should remove the drugs from their containers and mix them with an undesirable substance, such as cat litter or coffee grounds, to prevent them from being scavenged from household trash and consumed.

Then the mixture should be placed into a disposable container with a lid or into a sealable bag and disposed of with other household trash in the gray trash tote.

"Proper disposal of any type of matter is the right thing to do," said Dave Vaughn, general manager for Recology Yuba-Sutter.

Medications should never be flushed down the toilet or washed down the sink because they can contaminate water supplies, he said.

In a 2002 survey of 139 streams in 30 states, the U.S. Geological Survey found 80 percent had measurable amounts of prescription and nonprescription drugs, including steroids and reprodu tive hormones.

Empty plastic pill containers should be recycled in the blue containers, but Vaughn encourages residents to remove labels to protect privacy.

Recology would like to see a pharmaceutical disposal program resume in Yuba-Sutter, he said.

"We are still trying to figure out the proper channels to address at the state level," Vaughn said. "Programs like this have a lot of benefit. Unfortunately we do not see the downside of the program until it is not available."

The nearest facilities now authorized to accept pharmaceuticals for disposal are the Butte Regional Household Hazardous Waste Facility at 1011 Marauder St., Chico, and the Western Placer Waste Management Authority Materials Recovery Facility, 3033 Fiddyment Road, Roseville.

The sharps collection programs at the Marysville Transfer Station and the Yuba-Sutter Household Hazardous Waste Facility are still accepting home-generated sharps.