Educating the public on their environmentally friendly medication disposal program has been key to the success of the program designed and implemented by ecology students in Pontiac, Illinois.
How do you get rid of expired or unwanted medications safely? This seemingly simple question posed by ecology teacher Paul Ritter was the impetus for a pharmaceutical reclamation program designed and implemented by Pontiac Township (Illinois) High School students.
Students researched studies showing measurable levels of both prescription and non-prescription drugs in waterways in multiple states. Recommendations to flush unwanted medications or toss them in the trash have come under scrutiny as the medications can still leach into the soil and water; water treatment plants are not equipped to remove these chemicals. Ritter’s ecology students teamed up with fellow teacher Eric Bohm’s Illinois Studies class to create a solution: The Pontiac Prescription Drug Disposal Program, also called P2D2.
“It comes down to a common sense solution for a real world problem,” says Ritter. After researching the environmental impact of medications and the recommended disposal methods, Ritter’s students developed P2D2, which they presented to local civic leaders and pharmacies. People drop unwanted medications, excluding controlled substances such as opiates, in collection boxes set up at the pharmacies. Because government regulations prohibit pharmacies from taking in controlled substances, students approached the local police department, which now has a collection box specifically for those medications. The collected medications are taken to an incinerator where they are burned for energy. According to Bohm, P2D2 has collected over 125 pounds of pills and liquids from mid-January to late April, medicines that otherwise would have ended up in a landfill or down a drain.
“This program basically started out as a great hands-on project, and it has turned out that virtually every discipline in the high school is taking part,” notes Ritter. The school band is writing a song that will be performed by the chorus; the Spanish department is translating the brochures and other program materials. “Everybody is jumping on board. All the sudden we take a program that started in one classroom and it has affected 600-700 students.”
The reason for the interest is clear to Ritter. “It affects everyone. We’re not just talking about a bunch of frogs and fish. There’s no way I’m going to allow my children to have health issues” because of the widespread use of pharmaceuticals, he says. “There’s no way I’m going to allow myself to rest while this program is kicking. If we look at what makes the program kick, every one of these kids, every one of them, takes this program home and they’re proud. What set our program apart is students’ having the ability to take on responsibility and their wanting to go the extra mile. They want to take the high road and work extra hard to get things done. Kids are taking an active role in it and that’s what’s cool about it.”
Word of P2D2 has spread across the country as well, to Ritter’s amazement. Schools in Marquette, Michigan, and San Diego, California, will launch it in their communities. A city council member from Seattle, Washington, has called for details.
“We are the pilot program for Walgreens. We get around a 1,000 hits a month at our website from people around the world, from Finland to Australia to Spain,” Ritter says. “Most of my programs stay here in Pontiac; never in the world in my wildest imagination would I have dreamed this would have happened.”
His dreams appear to have grown. Reflecting the growing interest in P2D2 outside of Pontiac, the program’s name was changed to Prescription Pill and Drug Disposal (the acronym remained the same). Recently he was asked by Illinois Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn what he wanted. Ritter had an answer: “I said I wanted Oprah because once Oprah does it, everybody does it.
“Eric and I are committed to trying to change not only the face of Illinois but possibly the world,” he adds. “It’s our obligation to give it away to everyone. Every town, every class has something to gain from this. Every year the industry is increasing the number of pills that are going out. We’ve got to have a system in play. Our system is simple and it works.”
Michael Patton, executive director of the Illinois Pharmacists Association, is hoping his organization will be able to help implement P2D2 across the state and, perhaps eventually, the country.
“They’ve done an outstanding job addressing all the issues,” says Patton. “The community has provided collection boxes, and coordinated pick up and destruction of collected [medications]. We’re trying to turn the program into a package others can use.”
In addition to doing something positive for the environment, P2D2 addresses several education standards. Ritter has identified 37 Illinois science state learning standards addressed by the program, including the benchmark to defend the results of investigations to audiences that may include professional and technical experts, one “nobody ever seems to be able to cover,” he says. “It is a real world, hands-on model for [students] to make a difference in their world. It is applicable to all grade levels in junior high and high school levels,” Ritter says. “Kids making a difference and convincing the professionals of the right thing to do is applicable to any grade level.”
As the school year winds down, Ritter and Bohm are looking to the future. “Next year, the program will start over. It’s a perpetual thing. As the industry changes, we’ll have new projects,” Ritter says. He’s already considering angles for those potential projects. “Why are we having #5 plastic for pill bottles? You can’t recycle them.”
To learn more about P2D2, go to www.p2d2program.org.