What to Do With Expired Medicines

Most households have them: a strip from an illness two years ago, a half-used syrup, a cream nobody can identify. Expired medicine tends to accumulate because throwing away something that cost money feels wasteful, and because there is rarely an obvious place to put it.

This article covers what to do with it. What an expiry date actually certifies is a separate subject.

Related reading: Medicine expiry dates: what they actually mean

Why this matters

Keeping expired medicine creates two distinct risks. The first is that someone takes it — often the person who bought it, reaching for a familiar strip during a similar illness, without checking the date. The second, more serious, is that a child finds it. Ordinary painkillers and iron tablets are among the most common causes of accidental childhood poisoning in Indian homes.

There is also an environmental dimension. Medicines flushed down a drain or left in open waste contribute to pharmaceutical residues in water and soil.

Identifying what should go

• Anything past its printed expiry date. Where only a month and year are shown, treat it as covered to the last day of that month.
• Anything you cannot identify — a loose tablet outside its strip, an unlabelled bottle, a cream with a worn-off label.
• Any medicine that has changed — tablets that are discoloured, spotted, soft or crumbling; capsules stuck together; syrup that has separated or thickened; a cream that has split.
• Leftover antibiotics from a completed or abandoned course.
• Medicines prescribed for a condition you no longer have, or for someone who is no longer in the household.
• Eye drops, ear drops and other sterile preparations past their in-use period after opening, which is often much shorter than the printed expiry.
• Insulin or other refrigerated products that have frozen or been left out for an extended period.

Do not set aside expired medicine "just in case". If it is not safe to take, it is not safe to keep — and a strip kept in a drawer is a strip somebody may eventually swallow.

Disposing of them responsibly

1. Ask your pharmacy first. Many pharmacies can advise on the appropriate route for unwanted medicines in your area, and this is the best option where available.
2. If no return route is available, remove tablets and capsules from their strips, mix them with an unappealing substance such as used tea leaves, coffee grounds or soil, seal the mixture in a bag and place it in general waste. Mixing makes accidental or deliberate retrieval far less likely.
3. For syrups and liquids, keep them in their sealed container and place in general waste rather than pouring them down the sink.
4. Deface or remove the label on any bottle or box before discarding, so your name and prescription details are not readable.
5. Do not flush medicines down the toilet or sink.
6. Keep sharps — needles, insulin pens, lancets — separate. Never place loose sharps in household waste; ask your pharmacy or clinic how they should be handled.

Facilities differ considerably between towns and cities. Ask your local pharmacy what applies where you live rather than assuming a particular scheme exists.

Never pass leftover prescription medicines to friends or relatives, however similar their symptoms appear. A prescription is written for one person after considering their history, allergies, other medicines, age and weight.

When to consult a doctor

Speak to your pharmacist when a medicine you take regularly has expired, so a replacement can be arranged without a gap in treatment — particularly for blood pressure, thyroid, diabetes, cardiac or anti-epileptic medicines. Ask before using anything past its date rather than deciding it is probably fine.

Seek medical advice if an expired medicine has already been taken and the person feels unwell. Seek emergency care immediately if a child has swallowed any medicine not prescribed for them, or if anyone has taken a significant quantity — take the pack with you, as identifying the product changes what can be done.