SHEBOYGAN COUNTY, WI (WHBL) - Twice a year Sheboygan County helps people properly dispose of old prescription drugs by setting up collection sites for people to drop them off.
That next time is coming up this Saturday from 10 to 1.
Karlyn Raddatz with the Sheboygan County Health and Human Services Department says the number of locations will grow from three to five across the county. "The five events are Generations in Plymouth, Random Lake Fire Department, HSHS St. Nicholas Hospital, Oostburg Municipal Building, and Howards Grove Village Hall."
At each location, all people will need to do is go to the site with their old medication, and give it to those running the site. “The only things we ask is that you cross out your identifying information on the bottles, and any liquids that you are turning in need to be in the bottles and placed inside a plastic bag, just to ensure that they are not going to leak," says Raddatz.
The most recent drug take back event in May resulted in 391 pounds of pills collected.
Raddatz credits the growing number of pills collected because of people being informed of the pollution risk that comes with just throwing out old medicines. "It was just the practice to flush the medication when we were finished with them. I recall working within public health as well. It was just like we had nowhere to go with the medication and I’m sure other agencies had that same problem."
Raddatz adds the drug take back is part of the Health and Human Services Department's Healthy Sheboygan 2020 initiatives. Right now, one of the areas they are emphasizing on is cutting down on heroin and prescription drug abuse, which this program does.
One final thing to keep in mind, if you have sharps the only place where they will be accepted is St. Nicholas Hospital. Also, they will only be accepted if they are in a large sharps container or a different container like an old laundry bottle with the top duct taped.