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For the purposes of this review these sources are defined as giving rise to four major categories of waste: municipal solid waste, industrial waste, agricultural waste and hazardous waste.

Drug Take-Back Sites The best way to dispose of most types of unused or expired medicines is to drop off the medicine at a drug take-back site, location, or program immediately. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration ( DEA ) collects and safely disposes of all medications dropped off at all drug take-back sites.

All medicines, including controlled drugs, must be promptly returned to a community pharmacy. Pharmacies are contractually obliged to dispose of medicines waste for these services. The service does not require a T28 waste exemption as the pharmacy will denature the controlled drugs.

In terms of prescription medications, medication waste is defined as any medication that remains unused or expires anywhere along the medicine supply chain (West et al., 2015). Medication waste can occur at the prescriber, pharmacist and patient levels.

Non-Controlled/Non-Hazardous Prescription Drug Waste They can be very dangerous if taken by those for whom they are not prescribed. In some states, it is against state regulations for providers to place these drugs into the trash. These drugs can be sent for disposal at a medical waste incinerator.

EPA's regulations in the Code of Federal Regulations define four hazardous waste characteristic properties: ignitability, corrosivity, reactivity, or toxicity (see 40 CFR 261.21-261.24). This document presents the regulations developed that list wastes as hazardous in §§ 261.31 through 261.33.

It is estimated that 3% to 7% of medications intended for patients goes unused in the United States and that similar wastage could cost Canada approximately $8 billion annually.