GREER, S.C. — Anyone with expired or unwanted medicine at home can hand it off Saturday, Oct. 24, at a drive-thru collection set up by the Greer Commission of Public Works and the Greer Police Department. Cars can pull in between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. at 301 McCall St., home of the utility’s Customer Service Complex. The drop-off is open to the public, not only utility customers.
Drivers stay in their cars and pass medications through the window, a process organizers say usually takes about five minutes. Prescription and over-the-counter drugs and pet medications, both pills and patches, are taken. Needles, liquids and vape cartridges are not.
This is the 10th year the utility and police have teamed up on the event, and together they have gathered more than 1,500 pounds of medicine. Utility officials say drugs flushed down a drain reach the Greer wastewater plant, which cannot filter them out, and end up in the South Tiger River.
The collection is part of the national Take Back Day led by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration each spring and fall. The previous round, the 30th, drew 4,306 participating law enforcement agencies and brought in 642,410 pounds of drugs, pushing the all-time total past 21 million pounds.
After the event, Greer police deliver the medicine to the State Law Enforcement Division to be incinerated.
Filed under: Greer SC Health News
