320 Lbs. Of Meds Collected Across LI During DEC Take Back Event

LONG ISLAND, NY - A total of 320 pounds of pharmaceutical medications during DEC’s annual Long Island Pharmaceutical Take Back event this week, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) announced Friday.

For the fifth year in a row, the program collected and responsibly destroyed unused or expired medications from 27 long-term healthcare facilities including nursing, extended care, and rehabilitation centers, across both Nassau and Suffolk counties.

Over two tons of pharmaceuticals have been collected since the program began in 2014.

"Health care facilities like nursing homes and other long-term care facilities sometimes resort to flushing unused medications," DEC regional director Carrie Meek Gallagher said. "DEC will continue our efforts to prevent unused and expired medications from entering our waterways and we are grateful to all of the facilities that chose to participate in this year’s take-back day."

The DEC program is designed to reduce the number of pharmaceuticals that are flushed or unsafely disposed by facilities and can end up in Long Island's groundwater, bays, and estuaries.

Pharmaceuticals have been detected at low levels in New York waterways and Long Island's shallow groundwater.

The participating facilities stored unused and expired medications until DEC Environmental Conservation Police Officers (ECOs) visited on Wednesday, March 27, in Suffolk County, and Thursday, March 28, in Nassau County.

The pharmaceuticals were then brought to the Covanta Waste-to-Energy Plant in Huntington, which volunteered its services to incinerate the products.

"By destroying medication at our Energy-from-Waste facilities, the state is also ensuring the secure destruction of these drugs in an environmentally sound manner," Paul Stauder, president of Covanta Environmental Solutions, said.

In addition to collection events, DEC encourages New Yorkers to use medication collection box locations, which can be found by visiting DEC’s website and clicking on NYS Medication Drop Box Locations link.

DEC launched its Pilot Pharmaceutical Take Back program in May 2018, and installed 250 medication collection boxes at retail pharmacies, hospitals, and long-term care facilities all across New York State.

Since then, the organization has collected and destroyed 15,229 lbs. of unwanted medications through the pilot program.

DEC plans to install an additional 230 medication collection boxes in the future.