Best Methods for Throwing Things Away

July 1, 2022 3:21 AM

I have a bunch of things that I need to throw away. I am not sure what the best practices are for each category, and Google is giving me mixed results. Want to weigh in?

Here's what's on my list of things I am not sure how to dispose:

1. A whole set of ceramic plates and dishes from Ikea
2. A used Keurig machine
3. Opened dry cat food (some bags are expired, some aren't)
4. Hair dryer and straighteners (working condition, just used and covered in hair product)
5. A large, large quantity of empty, labeled prescription pill bottles and those Rx info sheets that have personal health info on them
6. Those weird plastic drawers you can get at Target, but like, ancient, and possibly dangerous when split apart because sharp edges
7. Unused prescription and OTC medication. Google says return to pharmacy for disposal, pharmacies have said no.
8. Expired bottles of various cooking liquids like vinegar, oil, etc (do I pour down drain? Do I leave as is?)

There's probably more but that's the big stuff. I both love and hate throwing stuff away so I'm getting caught up in doing things right so I feel less guilty for generating trash.

posted by The Adventure Begins to Grab Bag (13 answers total)

For unused prescription and OTC medication, there are a few options. Locally, our police take part in the DEA's "Take Back Day," which allows people to drop off prescription and OTC drugs at designated locations, usually grocery stores and pharmacies, that are manned by police and will take everything from heart meds to opioids. Additionally, my county's recycling site has a list of "Sharps, Needles, and Drug Disposal" locations for getting rid of stuff the rest of the year. These are all at police departments. Walgreens also has safe disposal kiosks in 46 states.
posted by MagnificentVacuum at 4:04 AM on July 1, 2022 [1 favorite]

Here's what I would do (also FWIW my city has an online tool called a "Waste Wizard" where you can enter in an item and it tells you how to dispose of it - maybe you have one too):

• 1,2: Plates, Keurig: drop them off for Goodwill/local charity shop/shelter that accepts donations
• 3: Cat food: Give away on a local facebook or email group, otherwise regular trash
• 4: Hair equipment: give them a quick clean with a damp paper towel or something and then drop off at Goodwill/local charity shop unless they're gross in which case, trash.
• 5a: Pill bottles: you should probably destroy the labels and then put them in the trash (or recycling) but I just put them in the trash; I don't take the threat model of "someone goes through my trash to get information about my prescriptions" particularly seriously and removing labels is a pain.
• 5b: Rx info sheets: same as with the bottles, you should shred the documents (there are often community shredding events or some banks will let you shred things) but idk, this is not something I personally worry about unless you have very nosy neighbors and very salacious prescriptions OR you're being actively investigated in some way
• 6: Put the drawers in the trash or the recycling depending on what your trash pickup recommends, or put them out by the curb on trash day for people to take if they want if that is a thing where you are.
• 7: Here's what the FDA recommends for disposing of expired/unused drugs; the short version is "Try to find a drug disposal dropoff, but if that doesn't work, put them in the trash, unless they're drugs of potential abuse/opioids in which case you should flush them." (Another way to dispose of drugs of potential abuse is to dump them into a bag or container with wet coffee grinds, used kitty litter, or some other unpleasant substance that will make them unusable, and then put that in the trash - this is what the hospice nurse did with my loved one's unused pain meds.)
• 8: Pour the non-oils down the drain and recycle the bottles; put the oils in the trash. (Or you can just put them all in the trash.)

Stuff for Goodwill you could also offer on a local free stuff facebook/email group but if you're not already signed up for one it's a little bit of a pain. You might even be able to sell it yourself, but again that's a hassle.
posted by mskyle at 4:06 AM on July 1, 2022 [2 favorites]

1-2. Thrift store
3. Garbage expired, call animal shelter to ask about the edible
4. If you heat these up and the hair product can come off with a damp towel, thrift store. If not, garbage.
5. Garbage for the Rx inserts, recycling for the pill bottles if the triangle codes match your local recycling program (check cap and bottle separately as they might be different plastic)
6. Check triangle code, recycle or garbage
7. The DEA operates drug disposal boxes around the country, find one near you. Garbage if you can't.
8. Pour out the vinegar, recycle the bottles, just bin the oils as is.


You can also just dump everything into the trash and move on with your life. I come from a family with hoarder tendencies, and I have absolutely experienced some mental health tied up around holding onto garbage until you can dispose of it in the best/most moral way, and then it takes over your life. If you need permission just to bin it all and walk freely into the sun, this is me giving it to you.
posted by phunniemee at 4:11 AM on July 1, 2022 [27 favorites]

1-4, put out front with a sign saying “free” and post it on CraigsList under the Garage Sale and the Free categories.
posted by TWinbrook8 at 4:56 AM on July 1, 2022 [4 favorites]

Thrift stores for 1-2 for sure.

Or - if you live in an area served by a Buy Nothing project, offer them up there. You could even offer the cat food, the hair tools, and the Target drawers there - and even the pill bottles, perhaps. In my own Buy Nothing group, I've seen people offer half-used shampoo and still get takers.

I would not offer anything that is expired (that you can just throw away), and I would be VERY CLEAR about the quality of everything you offer; I'd also try to at least give things a good clean first before offering them up.

So that's my suggestion for the stuff that is still useable. Even if it's been opened. Now for the unusable stuff.

For the unused medication - I would call your doctor and ask. There are some people who say the best thing to do is to flush it down the toilet, but I'm uneasy about medication getting into the water supply (what the heck is it doing to the fish, for one thing). If your doctor is stumped, your city or town likely has a sanitation department, and they might have a guideline themselves.

For the expired vinegars and oils - pour the liquid down the drain, rinse and recycle the bottles. That's what I would do. Except for with plain white vinegar - that, i would save to clean with. (Mix half-and-half with water to make an all-purpose cleaning solution, clean out drains by dumping some baking soda down the drain and then pouring in some vinegar, etc.).
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 5:21 AM on July 1, 2022

Please don't pour oil down the drain. Oil and water don't mix, the oil will float, adhere to the pipes and attract other fatty material contributing to a fatberg down the line and a headache for waste-water folks in your area.
posted by BobTheScientist at 5:39 AM on July 1, 2022 [9 favorites]

My pharmacy doesn't do drug takebacks, so they told me to add water to the bottle of pills, let it sit overnight, and throw out the bottle with the new goopy mass into the regular trash.
posted by The Almighty Mommy Goddess at 5:43 AM on July 1, 2022

Seconding the Buy Nothing group for the usable items, and my local group has a monthly "junk in the trunk" where everybody meets at a parking lot for one-stop free shopping, maybe yours does too.

Most prescription bottle labels are now printed with thermal printers, which means you can black them out with a lighter. Then you can offer the bottles on BN - they're good for various crafts and storage, people like them.

Pour oil into the trash. I usually wait until I have some paper trash - paper towels, food packaging, or something else that'll soak it up so it doesn't leak, but I also take the bag out immediately.
posted by Lyn Never at 6:09 AM on July 1, 2022

All the housewares I would leave in an open box marked FREE, on a fairly busy street the day before garbage day. Put a piece of tape saying THIS WORKS! on anything with a cord. You can nestle heavy items like the dishes in strong shopping bags so they’re easy to carry away. Put the items beside where the garbage will go. People will take stuff and the garbage collection will remove whatever didn’t get taken.

Vinegar is water-soluble so it) can go down the drain. White or cider vinegar you can clean with if you roll that way, or drain. If you have weeds you don’t want - like growing in the cracks of a cement path - vinegar is a safe way to kill them.

Oil I wouldn’t put in the drain as it causes gloop. I would just toss the whole sealed bottle in the trash.

Open pet food can be offered free in a community group, or go for a walk in a ravine and dump it deep in the bush for raccoons (not near a dog area).
posted by nouvelle-personne at 7:16 AM on July 1, 2022

1 & 2 - Thrift Store
3.Local cat Rescue/ Community cat support / TNR people and they probably wont care if dry food is expired. Your Local Buy Nothing Group.
4. Clean them up and send them to the thrift store or try the Buy Nothing Group
5. Shred the sheets, recycle the bottles?
6. Sounds like bulk trash to me but someone on Buy Nothing might want them
7. Seems like most meds can usually just go in the trash unless they are going to be harmful to another person.
8. Anything that isn't oil can go down the drain -- vinegar in the drain is not going to hurt anyone - but I would tightly seal the oil and put it in the regular trash.
posted by Medieval Maven at 7:20 AM on July 1, 2022 [1 favorite]

If the quantity of the Rx sheets you have exceeds what you are able or willing to shred yourself, or if you don't have a shredder, there are places (around here it is mostly UPS stores, you may have other options) where you can bring in your papers and they charge you by the pound to add them to their shredding bin.

If it is a larger quantity than that, most places have periodic "community shredding events" that you can find via Google where you bring your boxes of papers and, often for a donation of cash or food, can hand them over to be ground up in the shredding truck.
posted by Dip Flash at 8:56 AM on July 1, 2022

Vinegar doesn't go bad. Aged vinegar is a thing! I wouldn't think twice about continuing to use vinegar indefinitely, no matter what the bottle says. Oils, I'd taste as they are possibly rancid (they might taste bad, but a little won't hurt you) but also probably last a lot longer than whatever date they print on the bottle.

The rest of it you can give away (either just on the street in an urban environment or online if not) except the pills (trash) and pill bottles and papers (personally, I'd just recycle them unless you have some specific reason to believe anyone would care which medications you have taken).
posted by ssg at 2:49 PM on July 1, 2022

1, 2 ,4- local Goodwill
3 - local pet rescue or animal shelter, finadble on FB
5. recycling
6.Freecycle or curb
7, 8 Trash
posted by Miko at 9:43 PM on July 1, 2022