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We now know that those practices have contributed to pharmaceuticals entering the nation's waterways and eventually getting into drinking water supplies.
As part of a nationwide push for better disposal of what's in medicine cabinets, Darrenkamp's Pharmacy has become the first in the state to initiate a free disposal program for the public.
Anyone can bring outdated or unwanted drugs to Darrenkamp's pharmacies in Mount Joy and Elizabethtown.
The pills, capsules, gels, patches, liquids, ointments, inhalants and other medications are placed inside a sealed container and shipped to a specially licensed incinerator in Carthage, Texas.
There, law enforcement officials witness the burning. As a byproduct, the incinerator produces electricity.
"People are concerned. People today think more about where their waste goes," said T. Michael Reed, Darrenkamp's pharmacy director, who started the program this week.
VIDEO: Reed describes the medicine disposal program
Reed read a story in the newspaper two years ago that reported that a state sampling of Lititz Run below a sewage plant in Warwick Township had found minute amounts of 15 different pharmaceuticals and antibiotics.
Reed also knows that pharmaceuticals are being examined as a possible contributing cause of the mysterious die-offs of smallmouth bass in the Susquehanna River.
Some of the compounds, including those from birth control pills and hormones, enter sewer systems as a byproduct of human waste. But people discarding unused medicine in the trash or flushing it down toilets are other sources.
Reed said it's a nationwide concern.
Besides the environmental concerns, leaving abandoned medicine around runs the risk of it falling into unintended hands, which could result in accidental poisonings or drug abuse.
A bill to require stores that sell pharmaceutical drugs to have a take-back system for proper disposal was introduced in the Pennsylvania Legislature in 2007 but died in committee. State Reps. Mike Sturla and Gordon Denlinger were sponsors.
Reed isn't waiting for the law to force him to do the right thing.
"I thought Lancaster County is conscious about this," Reed said. "I thought I wanted to do my little part. And that's what it is, a little part."
"I just think if we can make people aware of it, and they think about it, they'll recycle."
The Take-Away Environmental Return System run by Sharps Compliance Corp., based in Houston costs Darrenkamp's $90 per container.
Reed is trying to spread the word about the new medicine collection system by placing fliers in both pharmacies and talking to customers.
"I've had six phone calls today about it, and three other people brought things in," Reed said Wednesday while working Darrenkamp's pharmacy in Elizabethtown.
Reed said he also got a call Wednesday from another pharmacy interested in the program.
"I'm hoping other pharmacies in the state and county will think about it," he said.
Darrenkamp's Elizabethtown pharmacy is at 191 W. Ridgeview Road. Its Mount Joy pharmacy is at 945 E. Main St.
