Miller Park Medicine Collection A Big Success

Nearly four tons of unused medications will soon be incinerated, keeping them off the streets and out of waterways following the sixth annual Medicine Collection Day at Miller Park on Saturday.

According to a press release from the Milwaukee Metropolitian Sewage District, the program started in 2006, collecting more than 14.8 tons of unused medications to date.

A total of 1,400 Milwaukee County residents turned in 5,702 pounds of unused prescription and over-the-counter medications directly at the four-hour Miller Park collection.

The remaining 1,958 pounds came from residents who turned in unused meds at police departments prior to Medicine Collection Day.  Thirteen police departments in the County are participating in a program that gives residents a way to properly dispose unused medication all year long. They include: , Brown Deer, Cudahy, , Franklin, Greendale, Oak Creek, River Hills, Shorewood, South Milwaukee, St. Francis, West Milwaukee and Whitefish Bay.

The Milwaukee Police Department provided officers at Miller Park to supervise the collection and make sure federal guidelines were followed for handling certain kinds of pharmaceuticals.

Volunteer pharmacists from Aurora Pharmacy and the Clement J. Zablocki VA Medical Center helped sort the thousands of pounds of medications to make sure federal guidelines were followed.

All medicines collected will be destroyed.  The U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency is incinerating controlled substances collected on Saturday.  All non-controlled substances will be incinerated at a federally licensed facility owned by Veolia Environmental Services that is designed to handle pharmaceuticals.