In a partnership with the Ottawa County Health Department, the Grand Valley Police Department has placed new “safe pill disposal bins” in the lobby of the facilities building in front of the Allendale Campus’ Department of Public Safety.

The drop-off site will accept all old, expired and unused medications including controlled medicines. GVPD’s Captain Brandon DeHaan said the prescription drug drop-off is limited to students, faculty and staff and GVSU and anyone disposing of medications at the site should remove them from the prescription container and place them in a plastic bag before discarding them for identity privacy reasons.

The initiative is an extension of the organization West Michigan Take Back Meds. On their website, wmtakebackmeds.org, the organization reports that between 20 to 60 percent of prescription medications go unused and are eventually disposed, with nearly all of the entering the U.S.’s solid waste or sewage systems.
Sewage treatment plants are not generally designed to screen for these chemicals and pharmaceuticals discarded in landfills can seep into the surrounding water table.

“Several studies, including a 2002 analysis by the US Geological Survey of 139 streams across 30 states found that 80 percent of waterways tested had measurable concentrations of prescription and nonprescription drugs, steroids, and reproductive hormones,” the website states.

When unwanted or unused medicine is disposed of with other trash, there is the potential for theft which can result in abuse or overdose.

For more information on how to properly dispose of prescription pharmaceuticals or for alternative drop-off locations visit wmtakebackmeds.org, or Ottawa County’s Health Department website at www.miottawa.org. For inquiries or more information about GVSU’s own safe pill disposal drop off, visit www.gvsu.edu/gvpd or contact DeHaan directly at 331-3255.

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