Bring your old or unwanted medicines in for safe disposal, or ask us about a free collection from your home
Returning your unwanted medicines to this pharmacy
In order to protect the safety of our staff, customers and the environment, when returning your unwanted medicines to this pharmacy, please take a moment to answer these quick questions.You must be able to answer all the questions with a “Yes” in order for our staff to accept your unwanted medicines. Please tell our pharmacy staff if there are any questions to which you’ve answered “No”.
- Are you only returning medicines?
- Are you sure there are no needles or other sharps in the bag/container?
- Are you sure there is nothing else that may affect the health and safety of our staff?
- Tablets
- Creams
- Liquid medicines
- Powders
- Inhalers
- Ampoules
- Ointments
- Capsules
- Needles or other sharps
- Chemicals
- Veterinary products
- Dialysis kits
- Paints
- Solvents
- Oil
- Batteries
- Pesticides or other garden chemicals
- Anything else which is not a medicine.
If you have out of date or unwanted medicines, both prescription or over the counter drugs, don’t bin them or flush them.
We can arrange to collect your unwanted medicines from your home for free. Contact us to discuss arranging a collection.
Each year enormous quantities of unused and expired medications are dumped into bins or flushed down toilets and sinks. The effects on the environment and human health are unclear but evidence is pointing to the presence of chemicals from prescriptions and over-the-counter medications in soil, drinking water and the surrounding environment. Just as proper medication administration is important, so is safe and cautious disposal.
Unused prescription medicines cost the NHS across the UK over £300 million every year.
£300 million could pay for:- 80,906 MORE hip replacements*
- 101,351 MORE knee replacements*
- 19,799 MORE drug treatment courses for breast cancer*
- 11,778 MORE community nurses*
- 300,000 MORE drug treatment courses for Alzheimer’s*
You can help by only ordering the medicines that you need:
- Please let your GP or Pharmacist know if you’ve stopped taking any of your medicines
- Check what medicines you still have at home before re-ordering
- Discuss your medication with your GP or Pharmacist on a regular basis
- Think carefully before ticking all the boxes on your repeat prescription forms and only tick those you really need
- If you don’t need the medicine please don’t order it! If you need the medicine in the future you can still request it.
- If you need to go into hospital, please remember to take all your medicines with you in a clearly marked bag.
- Please also remember that your medicines are prescribed only for you; it’s not safe to share them with anyone else.
Remember that unused medicines cannot be recycled
- Even if you never open them, once medicines have left the Pharmacy, they cannot be recycled or used by anyone else.
- Please contact us to arrange collection of your unused medicines for safe disposal.
- NEVER dispose of your unused or unwanted medicines down the toilet
Unused medicines are a safety risk
- Contact us to arrange collection of your out of date medicines for safe disposal
- If your medicines change – contact us to arrange collection of your old medicines for safe disposal to avoid mixing them up with your new medicines
- Don’t stockpile medication – it is a safety risk for children and others who might take them
- Store medicines in an appropriate place out of reach of children