Monroe County Partners w/ Wegmans for 10th Year of Free Pharmaceutical Waste Collections

Opioid epidemic, painkillers and drug abuse concept with close up on a bottle of prescription drugs and hydrocodone pills falling out of it on white

Monroe County’s Department of Environmental Services (DES) is partnering with Wegmans and the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office to hold pharmaceutical waste collections to encourage proper disposal of prescription medications. Unused medications can be subjected to abuse that contributes to the ongoing opioid epidemic.

Wegmans and Monroe County will co-host the following collections:
·        Saturday, 6/8 – Eastway Wegmans (1955 Empire Blvd, Webster)
·        Saturday, 7/27 – Irondequoit Wegmans (525 Titus Ave, Irondequoit)
·        Saturday, 9/21 – Latta Road Wegmans (3177 Latta Rd, Greece)

All collections will be held from 8:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. To date, the partnership between Monroe County and Wegmans has collected almost 27,000 pounds of pharmaceutical waste.

Monroe County is also announcing the following locations as designated collection points:
·        Monroe County Sheriff’s Office Substations 
·        Police Departments in Fairport, East Rochester, Greece, Brighton, Ogden, Brockport, Webster, Irondequoit and Gates
·        Monroe County Ecopark on Wednesdays from 1:00 p.m. – 6:30 p.m. and Saturdays from 7:30 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. Residents can access a full schedule by viewing the Ecopark’s website at www.ecoparkmcny.com.

“Monroe County is proud of our partnership with Wegmans to offer these complementary collections for our residents and their families.  Proper disposal of medication is good for the environment and helps keep harmful substances out of our trash cans and off of our streets. We encourage all residents with leftover prescriptions to dispose of them at one of our many collection points, including Wegmans, the Sheriff’s Department, and our Ecopark, among several others. I thank Wegmans, Sheriff Baxter, and all of our partners for helping us host these collections for the tenth straight year in 2019.” -Monroe County Executive Cheryl Dinolfo