recycling...

... or maybe  not. I think trying to protect the environment might be more accurate for the project yesterday. I volunteered to be part to be part of the group that was taking unwanted, un-used, expired pharmaceuticals and over-the-counter medications. This event was advertised on TV, probably a public service announcement, so there was a pretty good response from the general public. It was also promoted by a flyer inserted in the water works statements going out to all the households in the city. I had to wonder if people who live in densely populated areas, like apartments or condos get separate bills for their utilities each month, or some of that expense is covered by their rent payments. We can assume the best response would be as a result of a blanket coverage, but since that would be a very expensive proposition, not sure of the most effective method to let people know.

While I was 'working' (standing around in the chilly, breezy parking lot just off the interstate highway, easily accessible and convenient for anyone on the north side of town), I began to wonder what the most efficient method of spreading the news might be. I don't watch television, and I am not the person who receives and pays the monthly water bill, so unless there is a different method of publicizing, I would have been in the dark. Except for the fact that I volunteered myself to be a member of the board of the organization that sponsored this event.  Email correspondence from the office of Keep Columbus Beautiful provided me with info., as well as the opportunity to pick the two hour slot I preferred as a volunteer.

The County Sheriffs' Department sent several deputies to accept the drugs, as they were accepting any and all medications people wished to dispose of. All prescriptions, any sort of over the counter medications, whether they were still usable or expired.  I had a bag full, and thought this day was the perfect opportunity to dispose of dozens of containers of a variety of medications no longer needed. Plus some 'patent medicines', normally sold over the counter, things like Alka Seltzer and pain killers, Pepto Bismol, and remedies for the common cold/cough.

The one thing I discovered the deputies would not accept was needles of any sort. They would not take sharps to recycle: I assume because the metal would  not burn. When I was doing this same thing, volunteering to help keep meds out of the environment, last year I asked 'what happens to all those drugs?' The deputy reported that everything is taken to an incinerator in the northern part of the state, and everything is burned. Needles would not, so now we have to wonder what is done with those sharps: possibly contaminated with blood. Where do they go? You see those little red boxes mounted on the wall in the cubicles at medical offices for disposal, but what happens after that?

For the longest time we could put a jar of used insulin needles out by the front door, and someone from the city services would come and pick them up. Dropping needles every day in an empty gallon water jug, with the lid screwed on and taped shut, left out after a call to notify trash route supervisor we needed for the jug to be picked up and disposed of. So now, I have to wonder: where did it go? And with the city no longer accepting syringes as hazmat materials, where are we supposed to take them for safe disposal?