BECKLEY — Disposal of medicine has always presented a difficulty, but one Beckley businessman could have an answer.

In Thursday night’s meeting of the Piney Creek Watershed Association, Chris Vaught, president and CEO of Vaught Inc., talked about a new chemical that dissolves all types of medicine in about 24 hours. 

Vaught brought out two tamper-proof containers, along with a small packet full of the cellulose-based chemical. The chemical does not create heat or gas, Vaught explained.

The first jar had medicine in it, and the other jar was full of a greenish liquid, which represented the medicine after a 24-hour period. Vaught put the chemical in the first jar, and the pills instantly started to fuse together.

“The chemical completely breaks down the pills and now, by regulation, it is suitable to be put in the landfill,” he said. “What you do is you put a little bit of water in the jar, and then put the chemical in, and the rest is done.”

People need not wait 24 hours before throwing the container away, however. Vaught says that it is good if a person can wait a day before disposal, but it is “no problem” if a person can’t.

Vaught Inc. worked with Hospice of Southern West Virginia to tackle the issue.

“We asked them what they did with the medicine when a patient passed away, and they said they flushed them so we took a look at what to do with the medicine.”

Yet Vaught and his team ran into quite a few predicaments on the way to an answer.

“When we started the project, we were told that we couldn’t flush, burn or throw away medicine so we didn’t know what to do.”

The team tried putting medicine in a milk jug, filling it with water and placing cat litter over top of it. Another problem occurred, however.

“We wanted to make it more convenient by possibly getting a smaller container and pre-measured cat litter, yet we found that some medicine was still usable.”

The team then discovered a chemical that acts like litter but actually dissolves all types of medicine. Vaught says the chemical will even work on liquid medicine.

“We started testing this with Hospice, and we thought this was a great product for them,” he said. “Now, we are starting to sample it nationwide to see the response. So far, it’s been very good. We have processed two orders when we didn’t expect to process any to begin with.”

Vaught anticipates that it will reach the consumer market but stresses that the product is very much in the prototype and testing phase. He estimates the cost of each unit to be around $9.95, and Vaught says the company hopes to manufacture the containers themselves.