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EAG
News Update
High School Students Help Pass Landmark Legislation
Historic legislation passed through the Illinois General
Assembly – with the help of high school students last week.
HB2056 is the first law in America that completely handles and funds
pharmaceutical disposal for an entire state.
“Municipalities and state governments don’t have to pay,” says Paul
Ritter, ecology teacher and director of the National Prescription Pill
and Drug Disposal Program (P2D2). The program is funded by enacting a
$20 fine against anyone convicted of certain drug offenses.
“This is a model that can be replicated in other states,” Ritter says.
P2D2 as a proper drug disposal program has already spread to 13 states,
but this landmark legislation is the first to fully fund the program.
Previously, the program used tipping fees from landfills, but that
wasn’t sustainable in all counties in Illinois. “Basically, the state
said, ‘if you can solve the money problem, you can have the whole
state.’ So, we did.”
In Illinois and other states, the program helps local pharmacies, police
and fire departments, officials and students collaborate to collect
unwanted medications and educate the public about the dangers of not
properly disposing of medication and drugs.
Pharmacies collect prescription and non-prescription drugs in bins
and then send full bins to be incinerated, keeping the drugs out of
waterways.
Any controlled substances, which are drugs or chemicals regulated by the
government, are returned to the police or fire department and then
disposed of according to appropriate procedures.
P2D2 has been a success largely on the backs of high school students who
have lobbied state governments and helped spread the word about the
program.
“Who better to change our world than the future of our world? My mission
is to make kids active participants in their lives, their world and
their future world,” Ritter says.
Ritter says that many people don’t understand the impact of improperly
disposing of unwanted medications, such as flushing down the toilet or
throwing them in the trash. He points to a 2000 U.S. Geological Survey
study that found pharmaceuticals in 80 percent of streams sampled across
30 states. While the ramification of these contaminates in our water
supply remains unclear, Ritter – also a zoologist – says, “there is
biological modification taking place and hormone problems in animals.”
He says it’s important to note that proper disposal methods for
medications use waste-to-energy. “The material gets incinerated; you’re
taking something not good and getting something that’s pretty good out
of it,” Ritter says.
Ritter hopes to continue to grow the P2D2 program to as many other
states as possible and enable young people to be actively involved in
their local governments and environmental policy.
“I’m just a normal person – a teacher in the middle of Corntown, USA,
but when we have people that work together, there’s nothing that can’t
be accomplished,” Ritter says.
To learn more about P2D2 and how to start your own program, visit
P2D2′s
website.
