Page 12 - Sonoma County Gazette January 2016

The regional partners that comprise RRWA membership, from both Mendocino and Sonoma Counties, have enacted a free Safe Medicine Disposal program to take back old, unused, unneeded, expired, or otherwise no longer desired medicines. In Mendocino County, Ukiah has 3 take-back locations, Willits and Fort Bragg each have one, and the Mendocino Solid Waste Management Authority operates a HazMobile collection program. In Sonoma County, there is at least one take back location in the Cities of Cotati, Cloverdale, Healdsburg, Petaluma, Rohnert Park, Santa Rosa, Sebastopol, Sonoma, and the Town of Windsor. There are additional locations in unincorporated areas of the County. The Sonoma County Waste Management Agency also collects unwanted medicines at its Household Toxics Facility
at the Central Disposal Site, via weekly Community Toxic Collection (CTC) events held all over Sonoma County, and through the Toxic Rover household pick-up service. More than twenty secure mailbox-like bins are located in pharmacies and police departments throughout the two counties to keep unused medications out of the wrong hands and the environment. To find the closest drop off location near you, please visit safemedicinedisposal.org/drop- off-locations
Daniel who just doesn’t want to be responsible for all the complexities of maintaining a home, likes the freedom this life affords. He is also clean and sober, organized in how he makes a living. He collects recycling to buy food, and does handyman work now and then. The unstructured life suits him perfectly.
“How can people live like this?” is a question that comes up over and over. “How can they have so little concern for the environment?” volunteers ask again and again. It’s hard to keep hearts open in the face of all this debris that destroys habitat and threatens water quality. The focus always comes back to “We have to DO something!”
The Safe Medicine Disposal program provides a means for proper disposal of unwanted medicines. Currently, there are a limited number of take-back locations, in part, because the cost of running the program is borne by the local government. Since 2008, the program has safely transported more than 90,000 pounds of collected medications to a certified disposal facility, but the cost of collection, hauling, and disposal is high.
Buck who is skinny as a broom stick helps us clean up his collection of what he makes a “home”. He drinks, knows it’s not good, but it’s his life. He used to shack up with women when he was younger, but his last girlfriend died and he’s been homeless ever since. He doesn’t like shelters because they are noisy and offer no privacy. He’d rather be outside in his own space where no one tells him what to do.
The BIG QUESTION is what IS that something we have to do? County programs take care of some of the problem - shelter and services. Volunteers take care of food, clothing, and offer kindness. But a REAL SOLUTION keeps eluding everyone.
Recently, nearby counties have developed Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) ordinances which shift the burden of medicine disposal to medicine manufacturers and distributors.
We who have homes, jobs, family, wonder what happens to a person to make them homeless. Yes, drugs and alcohol take their toll on lives and leave permanent damage. Mental illness plays a part. Sometime it’s self- inflicted through drug abuse, and sometimes people are born mentally impaired and there’s nothing anyone can do to change that.
Human beings are not all the same so no one solution will solve all problems. Every day people become homeless when they lose jobs and family...for MANY reasons. We do what we CAN for those who are willing to take the hand that is reaching out to help.
One of the pioneer Extended Producer Responsibility programs was developed by Alameda County and recently passed the ultimate legal test. The United States Supreme Court chose to allow a decision by the 9th Circuit Federal Court of Appeals in favor of the Alameda ordinance to stand against legal challenges and establish a comprehensive take-back program. The responsibility and expense for medicine take-back programs in Alameda is now placed with medicine manufacturers and distributors, thus putting the burden of disposal back to the parties that profit from the medicines’ sale.
Sonoma County provides tax-funded health clinics, mental health services, designated places people can sleep safely at night with showers, toilets, and trash receptacles. We interview homeless people every January to determine what works and what needs improvement. The county has a plan - see the article that follows - but not every homeless person wants to participate in what we offer.
We clean up after people who don’t clean up after themselves because this entire community, from city streets to river banks, is OUR HOME. We take care of our home in every way we can. With and without the cooperation of the humans who live here.
Mendocino and Sonoma County leaders are discussing establishing an ordinance for medicine disposal similar to Alameda County’s. Recently,
Andy Rodgers (RRWA Executive Director) and Mark Landman, Cotati City Council Member and RRWA Chair, visited all the local municipality governing bodies to explain Safe Medicine Disposal and discuss the opportunity to develop an extended producer responsibility ordinance. Eight cities in Sonoma County have signed letters of support to evaluate the feasibility of extending responsibility of medicine disposal in Sonoma County to medicine producers and manufacturers.
Please learn more, and think about volunteering for the homeless count so you can put a personal face on the people we are trying to help find shelter, opportunities ... and home.
Who do you think should pay for the safe disposal of medicines? What do you currently do with your unwanted
Volunteers collect and distribute food, clothing, blankets and more. People offer their time, their hearts and concern. Compassion balances with anger and resentment.
Articles on finding solutions for Homelessness will continue - your thoughts and ideas are appreciated. Your time and energy is essential. Please read Ending Homelessness on page 13. Send LETTERS to vesta@sonic.net
medications? TELL US at www.surveymonkey.com/r/SonomaMedsSharps.
12 - www.sonomacountygazette.com - 1/16
Homeless cont’d from page 1
Safe Medicine Disposal Update
It’s a question that we have all found ourselves asking at one point or another: what do I do with my old prescription and over the counter medicines? Proper disposal of medicines has been a long standing issue where, for many years, the public was directed to throw old medicines away
everything, her job, her home, her life. She has been clean and sober for a year - but homeless. Summer was good living in a tent by the river. But now she has financial aid and is getting a room where she can be warm and dry. Once she settles she can look clean enough to get a job and continue rehabilitating her life. She hopes.
Chris Brokate of the Clean River Alliance has organized clean-ups along the Russian River that hauled away many tons of debris. Each cleanup averages 4 to 6 tons and they have been happening at least twice a week since summer. Donated clothing is found strewn on the ground. Donated tarps to keep camps dry are mixed in with debris. Volunteers along every creek in every community are picking up after people who throw stuff on the ground, into piles, and leave behind what they don’t want.
in their trash or flush them down the toilet. However, studies have shown that these two disposal methods, although easy and very convenient, are also not environmentally appropriate. Statistics are also telling us there are real problems with prescription medicine abuse – including accidental poisonings - among all segments of our population, fueled in large part by availability of surplus medicines from family members or friends.