Recycle/Dispose of your medications in Montgomery County

The next National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day is October 22, 2016. We will link to local drop-off details when that information is available.

We accept medicine which is expired or not longer needed as trash

• in our curbside trash collections
• at the Shady Grove Processing Facility and Transfer Station

Special disposal as household hazardous waste is not necessary.

• Place unwanted or expired medication into a sealable plastic bag or other empty container to prevent liquid medications from leaking out.
• Mix with kitty litter, coffee grounds or sawdust. (Liquid medications can be solidified using kitty litter or sawdust.)
• Seal the bag and/or container.
• Put the bag and/or container containing the medication into your regular household trash.
• Remove the label with the patient’s name from the original medicine vial or bottle.
• Place the empty plastic vial or bottle into your blue recycling bin. Empty aerosol inhalers can be recycled in your recycling bin, too.

These municipalities have permanant drop-off sites. The collection sites are open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Drugs can be dropped off with no questions asked. Liquids, inhalers, aerosol cans, regular household ointments/lotions, needles/sharps and thermometers are not accepted. 

• Chevy Chase Village Police Department Medication Drop Box, 5906 Connecticut Avenue, Chevy Chase, MD 20815
• City of Gaithersburg Prescription Medication Disposal, 14 Fulks Corner Avenue Gaithersburg, Maryland 20877-2066
• City of Takoma Park Prescription Drug Take Back, 7500 Maple Avenue, 1^st Floor Lobby, Takoma Park, Maryland 20912

Do not dispose of medicine by pouring it down the drain or into a toilet, unless the label or patient instructions specifically advise this. The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recommends that a very small list of extremely powerful narcotic pain relievers and other controlled substances should be disposed by flushing them down the toilet if these drugs cannot be disposed of through a drug take-back program. View current FDA list. How to dispose of unused medicines – United States Food and Drug Administration