Pharmacists are encouraging community members to check their medicine cabinets and get rid of unwanted or expired medicines.
It is estimated that there are millions of medicines sitting in Australian homes that are out of date or no longer needed.
To help, the federal government has launched the Return Unwanted Medicines Project, which allows people to take unwanted medicines to their pharmacy for safe disposal.
Keilor Village Terry White Chemmart co-owner Dino Sapuppo said routine inspections of medicine cabinets were important.
“The easiest thing to do is once every few months, have a clean out of the medicine cabinet at home, pop any unwanted medication into a bag, bring it down to your local pharmacy and we’ll take care of it,” he said.
Return Unwanted Medicines Project manager Toni Riley said the initiative was having a profound impact, but still had a way to go.
“Last year alone, over 780,273 kilograms of medicines were collected and safely disposed of by the Return Unwanted Medicines Project, preventing it from ending up in waterways or landfill.
“If that’s only medicines collected from around 20 per cent of the population, imagine how many more are hiding in bathroom cabinets and kitchen drawers.”
