Drop off unused, unneeded meds during Drug Take-Back Day
The Drug Enforcement Administration's annual Prescription Drug Take-Back Day will be held from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 26, at participating locations nationwide. These locations will be open to all residents.
There are currently seven collection locations in Kane County registered for the event, as listed below. Check the DEA website closer to the event day to see if additional locations have registered.
• Algonquin Police Department, 2200 Harnish Drive
• Aurora Police Department, 1200 E. Indian Trail
• Carpentersville Police Department, 1200 L.W. Besinger Drive
• Campton Hills Police Department, 40W270 LaFox Road
• Geneva Police Department, 20 Police Plaza
• Huntley Police Department, 10911 Main St.
• Illinois State Police, Elgin, 777 S. State St. (Route 31), Elgin
• Kane County Sheriff's Office, 37W755 Route 38, Suite A, St. Charles
• Kane County Coroner's Office, 719 S. Batavia Ave., Building E, Geneva
• South Elgin Police Department, 10 N. Water St.
• Sugar Grove Police Department, 10 S. Municipal Drive
For those in McHenry County, some of the sites include Cary Police Department, 654 Village Hall Drive; McHenry County Sheriff's Office, 4300 E. Wonder Lake Road, Wonder Lake; and Lake in the Hills Police Department, 1115 Crystal Lake Road.
Consumers who are unable to visit a location on Take-Back Day can access this list of year round locations in Kane County or can search the IL EPA's list of medication disposal locations.
During the 2014 event, thousands of DEA-coordinated collection sites across the country accepted tablets, capsules, and all other solid dosage forms of medicines, including prescription painkillers and other controlled substance medications, and the DEA collected 617,150 pounds, 309 tons, of unwanted medication. In four years and nine Take-Back Days, consumers have disposed of at least 4.8 million pounds (2,411 tons) of unwanted medication.
Properly disposing of medications keeps medicine out of the hands of someone who might abuse them and also protects the environment. Take pills and capsules out of original bottles before placing them in a clear resealable bag for delivery.
Note: White plastic bottles can be recycled in your blue bin once emptied. Orange plastic med bottles are not recyclable as there is not a market for that type of plastic. Do not put them in your blue bin. You can put them in the trash or they are reusable. They're great for paper clips, beads, sewing needles, spices, and many other little things.
These drop-offs do not accept supplements, vitamins, liquid medicines, or sharps/syringes/needles. Supplements like vitamins are not controlled supplements and do not pose a hazard, so they can go in with your regular trash. There are very few return programs for syringes nationally, and there are none in Kane County so you must rely on safe disposal - the recommended process for discarding needles - or mail-in programs.
More Kane County recycling information can be found at www.countyofkane.org/recycling.
For more information, call Kane County Recycling Coordinator, Jennifer Jarland, (630) 208-3841, or email recycle@countyofkane.org.