If you have unused birth control sitting in a drawer, you have three main options: drop it off at a drug take-back location, donate it if the packaging is unopened, or dispose of it safely in your household trash. The right choice depends on whether the medication is expired, whether the original packaging is intact, and what form of birth control you have.
Drop It Off at a Take-Back Location
The simplest option is a drug take-back program. Many pharmacies, hospitals, and police departments have permanent collection bins where you can drop off unused medications year-round, no questions asked. Birth control pills, patches, and rings are all accepted. The DEA maintains a searchable database of year-round drop-off locations at apps.deadiversion.usdoj.gov/pubdispsearch, where you can search by zip code or city. Most results are within five to ten miles in populated areas.
The DEA also hosts National Prescription Drug Take Back Days twice a year, typically in April and October, with thousands of temporary collection sites across the country. These events accept almost everything, including hormonal contraceptives.
Donate Unopened Birth Control
If your birth control is unexpired and still sealed in its original manufacturer packaging (think blister packs or foil pouches, not a pharmacy bottle you’ve already opened), you may be able to donate it. Over 40 states have prescription drug repository programs that allow redistribution of qualifying medications to people who need them.
The key requirements are consistent across most programs. The medication must be in its original, sealed, tamper-evident packaging. It cannot be expired or close to expiring. It must have been stored according to label instructions, typically at room temperature. Medications in opened pharmacy bottles, even if pills remain inside, are not accepted because there’s no way to verify what’s in the bottle or how it was stored.
SIRUM (Supporting Initiatives to Redistribute Unused Medicine) is a national organization that connects donors with redistribution programs and can help you figure out whether your state accepts donations and where to send them. You can also contact your state board of pharmacy directly for local options. Texas, for example, runs a formal Prescription Drug Donation Program through its Department of State Health Services, though the state agency itself doesn’t handle the physical medications. Participating pharmacies and clinics manage the intake and dispensing.
Dispose of It in Household Trash
Birth control is not on the FDA’s flush list, which is reserved for medications dangerous enough to warrant flushing (mainly opioids). That means your pills, patches, and rings should go in the trash rather than down the toilet. Here’s how to do it safely:
- Remove the medication from its original packaging. Pop pills out of blister packs.
- Mix it with something unpleasant like used coffee grounds, dirt, or cat litter. This makes the medication unappealing to children, pets, or anyone who might go through your trash.
- Seal the mixture in a resealable plastic bag, empty can, or other container that won’t leak.
- Throw the sealed container in your regular household trash.
Before tossing the original packaging, scratch out or remove any personal information on prescription labels.
Special Handling for Patches and Rings
Birth control patches and vaginal rings contain hormones that can be absorbed through skin contact, which makes careful disposal especially important if you have children or pets at home.
For unused patches, fold the sticky sides together so the adhesive surface is sealed against itself, then follow the household trash method above. Even unused patches contain their full dose of hormones, so treat them with the same caution you’d give a used one. The FDA notes that adhesive patches can retain significant amounts of active medication even after use.
Vaginal rings like NuvaRing should be discarded in the trash, not flushed. MedlinePlus specifically instructs users to place the ring back in its foil pouch if available, then into a sealed bag or container before throwing it away. The same applies to longer-lasting rings. If the ring is past its expiration date and still sitting in its original sealed sachet, discard the whole thing using the trash method.
Why You Shouldn’t Flush Birth Control
Flushing hormonal medications introduces synthetic estrogens into the water supply. Wastewater treatment plants don’t fully remove these compounds, and they end up in rivers, lakes, and downstream drinking water sources. Research published in the journal Water Research and indexed in PubMed Central has documented that synthetic estrogens in waterways act as endocrine disruptors, interfering with reproductive systems in fish and other aquatic animals and contributing to adverse pregnancy outcomes in non-human species. The contamination is widespread enough that these compounds have been detected in treated water from municipal treatment plants, not just in raw sewage.
Don’t Use Expired Birth Control
If you found old pills and you’re wondering whether they’re still effective, the answer is probably not reliable enough to trust. Once birth control passes its expiration date, the chemical composition of the hormones begins to change, and the manufacturer can no longer guarantee potency. Lower potency means the pill may not suppress ovulation consistently, which raises your risk of unintended pregnancy. There’s no visible way to tell whether an expired pill has degraded.
If you realize you’ve been taking expired pills, switch to a backup method like condoms immediately and start a new, unexpired pack as soon as possible. The same principle applies to expired patches and rings. Hormonal degradation reduces effectiveness regardless of the delivery method.