Wal-Mart Stores Inc., seeking to curb opioid abuse, will offer its pharmacy customersa product that disposes of unwanted or expired prescriptiondrugs.

Customers filling a new Class II opioid prescription at any ofWal-Mart’s 4,700 U.S. pharmacies will now receive a packet ofDisposeRx, a powder that -- when mixed into a pill bottle with warmwater -- creates a safe, biodegradable gel, the company said in astatement Wednesday. Those with refillable opioid prescriptionswill get a free sachet every six months, and customers can requesta free packet at any time.

Related: A 7-step plan for ending the opioidcrisis

The move comes as the U.S. grapples with the scourge of opioid addiction, an affliction thatoften begins when chronic-pain sufferers fill a prescription at aretail pharmacy chain like Wal-Mart, CVS orWalgreens. More than two out of three people misusing prescriptionopioids get them from family and friends, according to federaldata. Opioid overdose deaths rose 28 percent in 2016, to 42,000men, women and children.

Wal-Mart touted the DisposeRx offering as the “first of itskind” because it allows patients to dispose of unwanted or expiredpills at home. CVS and Walgreens currently offermedication-disposal kiosks at hundreds of locations, a service thatWal-Mart doesn’t provide. Wal-Mart does sells a drug-deactivationproduct called Deterra, which is made by Verde Technologies.

“The best part is that patients don’t have to take the drugsback to a location,” Marybeth Hays, Wal-Mart’s head of consumablesand health and wellness in the U.S., said in an interview. “It canall happen at home.”

The DisposeRx product has been in use for about six months inhospitals and other locations, according to John Holaday, thecompany’s co-founder and chief executive officer. A Wal-Martspokeswoman said the retailer doesn’t have any ownership stake inthe Southern Pines, North Carolina-based startup.

Wal-Mart shares were little changed at $100.72 at the start oftrading Wednesday in New York.

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