The kiosks: free, in-store, year-round
CVS operates secure medication disposal units at roughly 4,000 pharmacies, free during regular pharmacy hours. The program launched in 2017 and has collected over 10 million pounds of unused and expired medication.
Walgreens has more than 1,550 safe medication disposal kiosks across 46 states and Washington, D.C., free and year-round, running since 2016. Collected pills are incinerated at DEA-registered facilities.
The key caveat for both: not every store has a kiosk. Use the CVS 'medication disposal near me' locator or the Walgreens store locator (filter for the disposal kiosk) to find a participating pharmacy before you go.
What you can — and can't — drop off
CVS publishes a clear list. Accepted: prescription medications (both controlled, Schedules II–V, and non-controlled) and over-the-counter medicines, ideally in their original packaging, plus liquid medicine in bottles under 4 ounces sealed in a plastic bag. Expired medicine is fine.
Not accepted at CVS kiosks: illegal drugs, needles and sharps, medical devices and batteries, aerosol cans and inhalers, chemicals, and mercury-containing devices. Walgreens doesn't publish as detailed a list, but the same general rule applies: pills, patches and similar solid medications yes; sharps and hazardous items no.
No kiosk nearby? Free alternatives
If your pharmacy has no kiosk, both chains offer free DisposeRx packets on request — you mix the powder with warm water right in the pill bottle, and it sets into a gel you can throw away safely at home.
The FDA also endorses an at-home trash method for most medicines: take them out of the original container, mix with something unappealing like used coffee grounds, dirt or cat litter, seal in a bag, and put it in the household trash — then scratch out the personal information on the empty bottle. A short FDA 'flush list' of especially dangerous drugs (certain opioids like fentanyl and oxycodone, plus a few others) is the exception the FDA says to flush if no take-back option is available.
Injector pens, and the DEA Take Back option
Injector pens like Ozempic and Wegovy need special handling: the needle is a sharp and must go into an FDA-cleared sharps container (or a heavy-duty household jug with a puncture-resistant lid) — never loose in the trash or recycling, and never flushed. Whether a kiosk will take the empty pen body itself isn't clearly stated by CVS or Walgreens, so the safe move is to treat the whole thing as sharps and use a sharps drop-off.
Twice a year the DEA runs National Prescription Drug Take Back Day — the next is Saturday, October 24, 2026, 10 a.m.–2 p.m., free and anonymous, at thousands of sites (find one at DEATakeBack.com). Between events, more than 15,000 pharmacies and other DEA authorized collectors offer year-round disposal.