Prescription drugs dumped in Collier landfills

NAPLES, Fla. Homeowners have been leaving unwanted medications at the county’s two recycling centers for the last 10 years.

But the medicine they initially believed was being safely destroyed was instead being dumped into landfills.

The goal of collecting the drugs was to keep them away from children, a county spokeswoman said, but medications are no longer accepted at the recycling centers, county staff members told WINK News in an email.

The landfills are covered with liners to prevent the substances from seeping into the groundwater.

Drug Free Collier is still accepting old medicine through their Operation Medicine Cabinet program at Collier County Sheriff’s Office substations, the Naples Police Department and certain pharmacies.