After working with my home city of Cerritos for over a year, a drug disposal bin has been installed inside the Community Safety Center for residents and other nearby citizens to use. This comes with no financial charge to the city, as Senate Bill 212 in California "requires covered entities to implement stewardship programs to properly collect and dispose of unused covered drugs".
Previously, there were no medication disposal bins available for public use in Cerritos, despite other nearby cities having one for their residents. I brought this to the attention of city officials, who kindly worked with me to help tackle this problem.
If your city does not have a medication disposal bin, I have created a template of a letter to write to your city officials. This template is available at this link, and can also be found under the "Resources" page of this website.
I encourage others to not be afraid to work with their city and city officials, and instead help address the issue of improper medication disposal, one city at a time.
