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Pharmacy Volunteers’ Lend Their Expertise to Keep Northern Illinois Beautiful
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Every year, a huge quantity of medications go unused or expire, posing dangers for both the environment and individuals
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at risk of drug abuse. In response, UIC College of Pharmacy volunteers have dedicated their expertise and time to ensuring that thousands of pounds of medications are properly disposed. Since 2018, student and faculty volunteers from UIC Pharmacy in Rockford have partnered with Keeping Northern Illinois Beautiful (KNIB) for the organization’s annual medication-collection event. Volunteers have aided the effort at several takeback sites in the Rockford area, including on the UIC health-sciences campus. Last year, UIC faculty and students logged more than 40 hours of volunteer time, with UIC Pharmacy student volunteer commitments reaching more than 55 hours in 2018. This year’s event took place Saturday, June 11, from 9:00 a.m. to noon.
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UIC’s partner in the event, KNIB, is an environmental nonprofit that collects recyclables and hosts other events, like clothing drives and the Great American Cleanup, where volunteers beautify the outdoors. KNIB and UIC’s collection event makes a difference for clean water and public safety, while giving UIC Pharmacy students a chance to put their medication knowledge to real-world use, participants said. “It prevents medications from going into the environment, for example, our water system,” said
