Prescription, OTC Meds Collected at Sheriff’s and County Boxes 

Buffalo, NY – Erie County Sheriff Timothy B. Howard announces that Deputies and personnel from Erie County Department of Health secured over forty (40) barrels of unwanted prescription and over-the-counter medications yesterday.  The barrels were taken to the Covanta Niagara plant in Niagara Falls to be destroyed. 

The drugs were collected from twenty-eight (28) drop-off boxes maintained by the Erie County Sheriff’s Office and fourteen (14) additional boxes maintained by the Department of Health and local police departments. 

Since the inception of the Prescription Drug Drop-Off Program, the Sheriff’s Office and the health department have secured and destroyed near 20-tons of unwanted medications.  

Covanta burns the drugs and generates clean energy for Western New York; this process keeps medications out of landfills and prevents the drugs from entering water systems.