There were tons of leftovers in the EU, where I lived before - that's wasteful. Not a little bit of plastic.
> first [Canadian] National Prescription Drug Drop-Off Day, which resulted in the return of more than two tonnes of unused medications
> The first is inertia: it takes effort to discard something, but no effort to leave it where it is. The second is a natural inclination to keep something that might be useful later on, particularly if future procurement involves inconvenience or expense.
Every single person I know has a drug drawer with expired drugs.
Picking up common prescription medication consists of me walking into a pharmacy - any pharmacy! - with my prescription, handing it to them, and telling them "one of this please". They will then immediately retrieve the pack of that medicine, ask me some questions to check for allergies etc. and hand it to me. I don't have to have the prescription sent to a specific pharmacy then wait for them to have the bottle ready and verified by a pharmacist.