There may, conceivably, maybe be a use for medicines that have become too old to use, suggests the celebrated inventor Prakash Vaithyanathan, a high school teacher in Chennai, India. On the Enexions web site he sketches his idea for an experiment:
DISPOSAL OF EXPIRED MEDICINES
Just out of curiosity I tried experimenting with just one tablet that has Ibuprofen and Paracetamol (with due regards for the respective trademarks). It is a mixture of chemicals. I wondered whether it can be used as a fuel in the context of a fuel cell. From Wikipedia i learned that Ibuprofen is soluble only in organic solvent/ water mixtures. So i obtained 10 ml of that solvent and mixed it with 10 ml of distilled water and to this I added the powdered mixture of the tablet and transferred everything to a fuel cell and started recording the voltage. to my surprise the initial voltage was 130 mV and it rose to 578 mV and it is still going up.
At this point i got an idea. Tonnes and tonnes of waste or expired medicines are either dumped or incinerated ( that creates toxic fumes) every year. Why not use this mixture of chemicals in as is manner in a fuel cell because the chemical mixture will not change when the medicine expires.
Likewise expired syrups for cough related ailments can be used as feed stock for microbial fuel cells and get power from these potential hazardous waste.
i am suggesting this to all the authorities concerned because in the state I live in India, it is illegal to work with expired medicines and hence I can only work with the usable tablet. the principle is clear.
I am confident that this will lead to a better management of the medicines waste everywhere in the world.