On Saturday, April 23, Metro Drug Coalition, the City of Knoxville Police Department, Knox County, City of Knoxville Solid Waste Offices Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation, UT Academy of Student Pharmacists and the Knox County Health Department are partnering together to sponsor household only prescription pill collection in our community. This purpose of this event is to gather people throughout the Knoxville community to properly dispose of medication. In doing this, the partners hosting the event hope to prevent these medications from getting into the water or into the hands of children.

Thousands of pills are thrown away, flushed down the toilet or poured into drains every day. This can actually get into the water systems and affect people that drink it. Medication disposal programs help educate families and individuals of this danger and provide a safe, healthy way to dispose of unwanted or unneeded medications whether it is prescriptions or over-the-counter medications.

In addition to the hopes of educating the public on how to properly dispose of unneeded or unwanted medications, the partners for this event are hoping that events such as this will bring the community together in contributing to the drug abuse epidemic that is so prevalent throughout Knox County.

This event will take place on Saturday, April 23, 2016 in the West Town Mall parking lot on the corner of Kingston Pike and Morrell Road from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.

The following medications will be accepted:

  1. Unwanted or expired prescriptions and over-the-counter medications
  2. Veterinarian prescribed pet medications
  3. Unused sharp medicines such as epinephrine allergy injections and insulin
  4. Unused pricking devices for monitors (as long as they are still in the packaging and never have been used)****Used needles and other sharps should be disposed by placing the sharps/needles in a sealed plastic container (like an empty bleach bottle) and putting that in with your household waste.

For more information on Saturday’s event, please visit http://www.simon.com/mall/west-town-mall/stream/medication-collection-event-4050164

If you are not able to come to the event, please drop your medications at the Knoxville Police Department’s Safety Building, located at: 800 Howard Baker Jr. Avenue. Knoxville, TN 37915