A pharmacist Sean Liew recently shared on Facebook a piece of good advice on how to properly dispose of medicines without harming the environment and ourselves.

Sean shared that before he learned about medicines, he also disposed of unused medicines by throwing them into the dustbin or flushing it down the toilet or sink.

However, it turns out that it’s the wrong way to get rid of medicine.

Medicines that are not disposed of properly can harm the environment. For example, hormone medications that are flushed to the rivers can affect marine lives and antibiotic pollution can breed antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

There’s also the possibility that the medicinal wastes in the water get recycled back into our daily drinking water.

Safe disposal of medicines ensures that the medicines, which may or may not be expired, aren’t misused by others too.

How to discard medicines properly?

To prevent all of those scenarios from happening, Sean said the medicines can be safely disposed of at Alpro Pharmacy.

The pharmacy started a ‘Safe Medication Disposal’ campaign this year and anyone can walk-in to throw their unwanted medications for free in the Unwanted Medication Disposal bins at any Alpro Pharmacy outlets.

He added that these medicines will not be donated or reused in any way. Instead, it’ll be sent to a licensed and trusted waste management company that will incinerate and bury the wastes.

The cost of disposal will be absorbed by the pharmacy too.