[Pharmwaste] San Antonio - Texas / MedDropSA results

Tue Jun 8 09:43:10 EDT 2010

Hi Ken,

We did in Ithaca, NY this past March 6th.  1741 pounds net weight
collected.  Please let me know if anyone reports a higher number to you.
 Thanks!  Here is more complete information about our event:

The Coalition for Safe Medication Disposal (CSMD) formed to organize
our areas first unwanted household pharm waste collection.  The CSMD
includes representatives from the Tompkins County Health Department,
Tompkins County Solid Waste Management Division, Cornell University,
Lifelong (a seniors group), the Community Coalition for Healthy Youth,
Tompkins County Area Transit (TCAT), and the Ithaca Area Wastewater
Treatment Facility.  

The TCAT bus garage was a perfect drive though location.  We had good
weather for our March 6th collection.

The collection was a huge success, exceeding all of the organizers
expectations. 

We had 509 vehicles pass through in the six hours we were open.  That's
1.4 vehicles per minute.  Total time from entrance to exit was generally
five minutes or less.  We had close to one percent of the regions
population participate in the event.  According to Census estimates,
there are 37,749 households in Tompkins County.  It is safe to say this
event was utilized by more than 1.35% of the areas households.     

We filled 22 barrels with collected medications plus 20 cases of
medicated IV's.  The gross weight of material incinerated was 1970
pounds.  Net weight collected was 1741 pounds.  Quite a bit of the
paper/cardboard packaging was recycled.  Even subtracting the 632 pounds
of IV bags brought in by one household (!), we collected 1109 pounds of
pills, ointments, liquids, powders, etc.  Average weight dropped off per
participant was in line with other events. 

Some medications collected, including a large bottle of oil of hemlock,
were from 1915-1930.  

If you would like to see a photo of some old bottles and other photos
of the event please email me with “photos” in the subject line. 
Thanks!

Part way into the event, someone had the idea to weigh every vehicles
contribution.  379 of the 509 loads were weighed.  Please let me know if
you would like this detailed data by mentioning “data” in your
subject line.  Thanks!

We had participants answer four survey questions before dropping off
their medications.  
1. How did you hear about this event?  
           Newspaper	                68.10%  (About four
stories/letters, placed stickers on the cover for two days
                                                               ahead of
the event and got one free half page advertisement.)
           Flier or poster      	19.70%  (This response probably
includes the three banners we used.)
           Radio 		18.90%  (2 different PSA’s on 8
stations + 2 radio interviews.)

2. What would you have done with these medications if you hadn't heard
about this event?
	Flush or wash them down the drain         10.35% 
                Continue to hold on to them                     55.95%

                Throw them in the trash                          
26.21%

3. Why do you want to get rid of these medications?
	Medication expired                                              
 50.00%
                Did not want anyone else to use it		4.06% 
                Safety for myself & household 		4.55% 
                Stopped using or don't need this medication 	28.57% 
                Protect environment 			 5.03% 
                Don't know				 0.81% 
                Deceased 				 2.27%

4. What city, town or village do you live in?  (Participation was
roughly proportional to population distribution.)

Since we treated all collected material as a controlled substance we
did not have to separate medications by type.  For informational
purposes, we decided to do a random sample inventory.  We used
ReturnCo’s inventory system.  We were slow to get started do to
on-site technical difficulties (someone added a password requirement to
the LAN and cables had to be located to hard wire into the system). 
Once we were on-line the system worked great.  Bar code scanners allowed
some items to auto populate the data base fields.  Pill counts were then
added.  Three pharmacists and one sixth year pharmacy student were
assisting.  Each pharmacist worked with two volunteers, one who scanned
or read labels and the other who did the data entry.  We inventoried 57
vehicles and could easily have done twice as many if we had the system
working at all three sort tables from the start.   

Ed Gottlieb
Pretreatment Coordinator
Ithaca Area Wastewater Treatment Facility
525 3rd Street
Ithaca, NY  14850
(607) 273-8381

>>> "Tenace, Laurie" <Laurie.Tenace at dep.state.fl.us> 6/7/2010 2:41 PM
>>>

The Department of Environmental Protection values your feedback as a
customer. DEP Secretary Michael W. Sole is committed to continuously
assessing and improving the level and quality of services provided to
you. Please take a few minutes to comment on the quality of service you
received. Simply click on this link to the DEP Customer
Survey<http://survey.dep.state.fl.us/?refemail=Laurie.Tenace@dep.state.fl.us>.
Thank you in advance for completing the survey.
From: Ken Diehl [mailto:Ken.Diehl at saws.org] 
Sent: Monday, June 07, 2010 12:17 PM
To: 'pharmwaste at lists.dep.state.fl.us'
Subject: FW: San Antonio - Texas / MedDropSA results

May I ask this List Group if any other Program of it’s kind has
exceeded 1,336 lbs. for a one time collection of unused/unwanted
medicines collected in the US?  Thanks.

Ken Diehl, Environmental Protection Specialist IV
Resource Protection & Compliance Department
San Antonio Water System
P.O. Box 2449
San Antonio, Texas  78298
Work: (210) 233-3535
Fax:    (210) 233-4797
ken.diehl at saws.org 

From: Ken Diehl
Sent: Monday, June 07, 2010 9:02 AM
To: 'Smith, Helen E.'; 'Georgia Zannaras';
'judy at restorativehealth.com'; 'wiesner.dennis at heb.com'; 'Afamia
El-Nakat'; 'pgoodwin at homeinstead.com'
Cc: 'pharmwaste at lists.dep.state.fl.us'; Mike Gonzales; 'Jessica
Huybregts'; Donovan Burton; William Peche; 'Winter, Andrew'; Dave Diehl;
'eljohnso at tceq.state.tx.us'; David Newman; 'Joseph Krupa'; 'Guzman, John
A'; 'James Miertschin'; 'Joe Gildersleeve'; 'Danny Siebeneicher'; Ken
Diehl; Erik Hobson; Kirk Nixon; Robert Martinez; Sarah Gatewood
Subject: San Antonio - Texas / MedDropSA results

I wanted to share the results provided by the San Antonio Police
Department/Narcotics Division of “MedDropSA” that was held this last
Sat. (June 5th) in San Antonio Texas.  MedDropSA is the name for the
City of San Antonio’s residential pharmaceutical drug disposal
program. See Flyer attached.

The San Antonio Water System has partnering with the San Antonio Police
Department and the City’s Solid Waste Management Division on a new
initiative, MedDropSA.  This program is designed to collect unwanted or
unused medications, both prescription and over-the-counter.  The event
was scheduled in conjunction with the City’s Household Hazardous Waste
collection day to collect old/unneeded pharmaceuticals, providing a
safe, free alternative to disposal.

[cid:image002.jpg at 01CB064F.733F9180]Weight: 

●        Pills - 1,007 lbs

●        Liquids/powders/creams - 329 lbs

          GRAND TOTAL: 1,336 lbs

Approximate number of vehicles participated:

●       110

Boxes to be incinerated by Law enforcement at a permitted facility:

●       Total of 36 boxes

Please feel free to contact me with any questions you may have.

Ken Diehl, Environmental Protection Specialist IV

Resource Protection & Compliance Department

San Antonio Water System

P.O. Box 2449

San Antonio, Texas  78298

Work: (210) 233-3535

Fax:    (210) 233-4797
ken.diehl at saws.org<mailto:ken.diehl at saws.org>