The permanent medicine disposal bin program, known as Operation Rx in Anderson County, plays an important role in keeping Tennessee clean and healthy. There are five permanent bins in Anderson County located at police stations:

Clinton Police Department

Norris Police Department

Oak Ridge Police Department

Oliver Springs Police Department

Rocky Top Police Department

The driving force behind this project is to provide the citizens of Anderson County an environmentally-safe method to dispose of unused or expired medications while keeping unused medicine out of the hands of people who may misuse them.

Sean Richards, professor of biological and environmental sciences at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga,  and his colleagues been studying the amounts of prescription and over the counter medications that have made it into the Tennessee River between Knoxville and Chattanooga. They have discovered trace amounts of 13 pharmaceuticals in all of their 160 sample points up and down the river. We all know that as the population increases, those numbers and amounts will also grow.

Water treatment plants are designed to filter out and remove fat-soluble compounds; so the water-soluble pharmaceuticals pass straight through without getting filtered out. With the permanent disposal bins in place, residents of Anderson County now have a method of disposing their medications to prevent them ending up in our local water system. In the 2014-2015 collection year, more than 1,600 pounds of medication was collected and safely disposed in Anderson County.