Drug take-back system provides a legal, safe and eco-friendly avenue to appropriately dispose of unwanted medicines, contributing to both environmental sustainability and reducing medication misuse. This study designed and implemented a brief educational intervention, which took <1 min on average, to enhance awareness of community residents regarding the dangers of hoarding and improperly disposing of expired and unused medication at home. In a Chinese urban community, 104 eligible households were evenly assigned into 2 groups receiving leaflet-based awareness-raising interventions. Messages about risks of unwanted medicines delivered to the two groups focused on either environmental concerns of pharmaceutical emerging contaminants (eco-directed) or health hazards associated with misuse or overuse (health-focused). Compared with those in a health-focused intervention, significantly more households participating in an eco-directed awareness-raising activity returned unwanted medicines, supported community-level drug take-back program and agreed that drug take-back program should be mandatory and paid for by consumers. Data suggested that the eco-directed awareness-raising intervention might be an attractive approach to enhance the public’s active participation in drug take-back program.