@#%^?? You are not supposed to empty a sharps container ever. That's the point!
Just throw needles away?
- Thread starter T-dog
- Start date
@#%^?? You are not supposed to empty a sharps container ever. That's the point!
Here's the solution I use. It's safe, reliable, legal, and cost effective:
http://www.republicsharps.com/?_ga=1.56980520.305006692.1459519250
Vince.
http://www.republicsharps.com/?_ga=1.56980520.305006692.1459519250
Vince.
WHY? What is "medical waste"? What happens to it? Let's review the consequences of "not in my back yard" out of site out of mind solutions.
Medical waste is a separate refuse stream. Legally it can not be recycled or go to your local dump. Part of every dollar we pay in medical costs and local waste removal goes in to the pockets of profiteers like STERICYCLE who cart this stuff off by the ton to incinerators they locate in rural communities. Here it is converted to columns blowing black toxic smoke. No stack scrubbers required.
Other peoples lungs, other peoples kids. It doesn't stop there. Your gift keeps giving.
The communities you've thoughtlessly saddle with your problem go about their business which is mostly agriculture. The toxic residues that don't find a new home in the lungs of rural kids begin their journey back to your dinner table from farms and waterways. Yes even the organic farms.
Those black specs here and there on your organic spinach might very well be what's left of those syringes you mailed away to never never land last month.
You honestly think disposal is "free" because your fire department or hospital will take it off your hands or because some outfit will send you a shipping label? Check their budgets. You're paying for it all right and way more than you ever imagined.
Try this at home experiment:
1. Create two waste streams of 50 syringes each.
2. Place the nice thick heavy red sharp container filed with your syringes on a large bake sheet on top of your stove. Toss a match in. After the smoke dies down turn on the burners and heat until you have nothing but powder ash.
3. For the second batch of 50 syringes, de-needled as described earlier in this thread, crush them and toss in your recycle bin.
Republic is a Fortune 500 company eh? $50 per quart. I can see why.
It was like pulling pork from a federal defense authorization but I got my local authorities to admit that there are in fact no laws against safe and sane home based sanitary recycling even here in CA.
Apply a momentary current from a battery or house mains to a needle will instantly heat sterilize it. A micro-second more and it will vaporize like a fuse.
Have you tried to SNIP-A-TIP yet? your talking 1-2 mm bits here. There are much larger things passing through your G.I. all the time. Ask your town what happens to inorganic stuff that is removed from the sewer plant. Probably remains in the sludge. Stainless bits from all sorts of things end back in the soil. Non-toxic they function not unlike a grain of sand might.
The most ecologic thing to do with metal is to recycle it. Unfortunately it is often uneconomical to recover metals other than aluminum or large chunks of heavy iron. Another possibility is to draw up bleach water as soon as you've injected. Bio-hazard eliminated. Snip the very tip and drop in an old pill bottle. When that's full put it in the tech waste collection.
Folks ought to get the point here. Use any of several easy methods to deactivate the possible bio-hazard -immediately- following use. This converts the waste to a recyclable. We all know how to recycle.
Fourteen years ago the state of Maine completed a study on reduction of hospital waste. On the first page you can see that they send raw waste to recycling. Disposal costs back then were a mere $600/ton.
http://umaine.edu/wcs/files/2012/02/Least-Cost-Options-for-Biomedical-Waste-in-Maine-2002.pdf
Recycling at the consumer level is much more efficient and cheaper than at a plant. Locally we are allowed to dump all plastic metal and paper in the Blue barrel. The supervisors discovered that by encouraging homelessness the homeless will remove all the the deposit containers at night thereby drastically reducing the waste stream and county costs. It's important to keep these workers healthy so please do not drop unprocessed sharps in the bin.
Luis, This is scores high on preventing needle sticks to others.
Like sharps containers these were designed to protect health care workers in a clinic environment and were developed in response to The Needlestick Safety and Prevention Act, November 6, 2000.
Using them at home does protect others which is our prime responsibility as consumers of at-home injection medicine. Introducing one or two of these in to the waste stream per week is insignificant imo. Technically though this is in violation for disposing of an unprocessed sharp. You might take the extra precaution of drawing up bleach water. How do you find the convenience? the cost?
Fireproof, No harm will be done to the plumbing in your home by flushing cut needle bits. They are low enough in mass not to accumulate in the trap.
I live in Maryland. Here you can simply use a sharps container and dispose of it in regular trash pickup. I just buy the ones from Costco for a couple dollars each. Once it's full, just use the locking cap (I still tape it up), and put it in the trash can. Someone would have to work VERY hard to open it up. Once it's in a landfill it's no more dangerous than anything else that goes in there.
If I cut my finger while working in the yard and put a bandaid on it I don't need to think of it as some biohazard. I simply throw the bandaid in the trash. Once you protect the needles by putting them in a sharps container, 100 syringes have much less blood in them than a single bandaid, and are much less dangerous than a bandaid.
No sense in making things more complicated than they have to be.
If I cut my finger while working in the yard and put a bandaid on it I don't need to think of it as some biohazard. I simply throw the bandaid in the trash. Once you protect the needles by putting them in a sharps container, 100 syringes have much less blood in them than a single bandaid, and are much less dangerous than a bandaid.
No sense in making things more complicated than they have to be.
Jon, needles ARE more dangerous than bloody bandaids!! It isn't the amount of blood but the protective environment the NEEDLE (not syringe) provides for pathogens and their unequaled potential for transmitting disease IF improperly handled.
HIV for example will die within minutes on a bloody bandage. That bandage isn't going to prick you and deliver virus into the bloodstream ( although HIV can enter through cuts which is why medics wear gloves). Hepatitis C also does not live long outside the body or the protection a used needle affords that virus.
THIS explains our obligation to handle used sharps correctly.
Using and disposing of a sharps container as you describe certainly meets the level of safe handling required which is always the prime concern. Unfortunately people are mislead in to believing that something designed for clinic use is the ONLY solution. There will always be situations where a sharps container isn't available. Traveling for instance. That's why it's important for all injection drug users to learn alternate ways to instantly deactivate the bio-hazard immediately upon use in one of three ways:
i) destruction of the sharp
ii) bleach or heat
iii) sequestration
Once this is done the biomedical hazardous waste is converted to ordinary refuse ( except iii - most jurisdictions require the sharps container to enter the hazardous waste stream).
Destruction of the needle by clipping is the easiest and safest way to deactivate the hazard because only a small readily available tool (nail clipper) is required. Heat or bleach will deactivate the hazard but the risk of puncture and/or re-use remain.
What I've learned from this thread is that many do not understand why a used needle is an almost perfect vector of disease or how easy it is to destroy and eliminate the risk.
In speaking with those in my local health department charged with needstick safety and risk reduction I was shocked at the level of ignorance. Health care professionals should know better than anyone how and WHY sharps are dangerous while syringes are not. They don't. They incorrectly identified de-needled syringes as a health hazard when they clearly are not.
IMO it is dangerous to mislead public in to believing that syringes and needles are equally dangerous and must always be sequestered, the only safe practice being the use of sharps containers. This nonsense is incredibly widespread to the point that NO needle collection point in my county, of which there are many, will accept a plastic bag of clean empty Luer lock syringes without needles. These too must be in sharps containers. Where's the sharp!
It is important that everyone understands:
1. the unique hazard of needles pose as a highly effective disease delivery system (protective environment for pathogens)
2. how easy it is to eliminate ths hazard immediately post use via: i) mechanical destruction, ii) bleach,heat iii) containment
3. Sharps containers were designed for the clinic environment. NOT as a home disposal solution by self-injectors. They are not the only acceptable solution. Relying on them without learning the other safe procedures will inevitable result in risk and possible disease transmission. Finally, disposal of them is an environmental nightmare. We do not need to send them to a landfill where they and their contents will take 100 years or more to decompose or worse to an incinerator.
Some of us have a good reason to choose sharps containers: If someone else gives you an injection, by all means have then use a sharps container ONLY!!! Persons giving injections to others are at high risk for needstick injury. Such persons should not allow distractions during injections and move the entire needle and syringe together directly in to the nearby sharps container. They should NOT attempt needle destruction, heating or cleaning.
The rest of us who self-inject should learn the other methods for those inevitable times when a container will not be available and if they wish to address environmental impact with a personal commitment to waste reduction. Even if you continue to use sharps containers for sharps (needles) you do not need to sequester the syringe itself.
Vince
Super Moderator
If you go to a needle exchange center, you can open the container and dump the contents in the barrel. I just use an old laundry container and throw the whole container in.
Mr. Walker's refugee resettlement is a model for the other states. Lots of pressure to pay them by the hour rather than per piece in the repackaging operation. Do you bring food to Tent City?
Vince
Super Moderator
NEEDLE EXCHANGESharing and re-using syringes can transmit disease, such as HIV and hepatitis B and hepatitis C. Needle exchange can prevent this transmission. Public Health Madison & Dane County (PHMDC) Needle Exchange provides:
New syringes and other items to help reduce disease transmission. No questions asked and no names used.
Disposal of used needles. Please bring your dirty needles.
HIV antibody testing, hepatitis testing, hepatitis A and B vaccines, condoms, and other health referrals upon request.
You Gonna Learn Today
Member
I know this post is about a month or two old, but in looking for disposal procedures myself I came across the following site from BD (the company that makes sharps containers). It contains a list of "Household Sharps Disposal Guidelines by State":
http://www.bd.com/us/diabetes/page.aspx?cat=7001&id=62758
For those of us in Texas, it says:
Put your syringe into a strong plastic or metal container with a tight lid. Examples of containers to use include a plastic bleach, detergent or milk jug, or a coffee can.
Lancets may also be placed in this container. Examples of containers to use include a plastic bleach, detergent or milk jug, or a coffee can.
When the container gets full, tightly secure the lid and reinforce it with heavy-duty tape before throwing it in the trash.
Be sure not to put it in the recycling bin.
It doesn't mention anything about labeling it as "Household Medical Sharps" or "Hazardous Medical Waste" if you don't use a sharps container, but just to be safe I would probably put that on there somewhere and also maybe something that says, "DO NOT RECYCLE".
These sharps containers are less than $3 at Wal-mart, so I'll probably just use those and wrap it in duct tape before throwing it in the trash. Seems that's the legal way to do it in Texas.
I hope this helps any others looking for this type of information. Happy pinning, everyone!
http://www.bd.com/us/diabetes/page.aspx?cat=7001&id=62758
For those of us in Texas, it says:
Put your syringe into a strong plastic or metal container with a tight lid. Examples of containers to use include a plastic bleach, detergent or milk jug, or a coffee can.
Lancets may also be placed in this container. Examples of containers to use include a plastic bleach, detergent or milk jug, or a coffee can.
When the container gets full, tightly secure the lid and reinforce it with heavy-duty tape before throwing it in the trash.
Be sure not to put it in the recycling bin.
It doesn't mention anything about labeling it as "Household Medical Sharps" or "Hazardous Medical Waste" if you don't use a sharps container, but just to be safe I would probably put that on there somewhere and also maybe something that says, "DO NOT RECYCLE".
These sharps containers are less than $3 at Wal-mart, so I'll probably just use those and wrap it in duct tape before throwing it in the trash. Seems that's the legal way to do it in Texas.
I hope this helps any others looking for this type of information. Happy pinning, everyone!
Damn Good Idea !
You Gonna Learn Today
Member
They also sell this product on Amazon.
BD Safe-Clip Needle Clipping and Storage Device https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000VE6KB8/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_6LOpxb1NP4SST
I think you can just throw the syringe directly in the trash if the needle is clipped, no?
BD Safe-Clip Needle Clipping and Storage Device https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000VE6KB8/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_6LOpxb1NP4SST
I think you can just throw the syringe directly in the trash if the needle is clipped, no?
Bama, you don't need no fancy needle clipper, respectable rednecks use their teeth.
Y.G.L.T. and others wrapping and taping... put a message in there. 50 years from now it will still be floating somewhere in the Pacific. How about we give this thread new life:
"Show us what you put in your sharps time capsule"!
Y.G.L.T. and others wrapping and taping... put a message in there. 50 years from now it will still be floating somewhere in the Pacific. How about we give this thread new life:
"Show us what you put in your sharps time capsule"!
This works great for insulin syringes. Very easy and seems very safe. It seems like it must hold a zillion needle tips as I have yet to fill one up.
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