Where do you buy your Sharps Disposal Containers? Do you use other containers? And where do you dispose of them?
Do you live in the US? I have 2 containers that I need to turn in but the drugstore doesn’t take them
I use an empty laundry detergent container or any plastic bottle, break off the needles (or cap the syringe), duct tape it shut when full & write SHARPS on the container. There’s no disposal in my area.
My vet disposes of them for me with her medical waste. Not an option that many people have.
There’s a device that melts the needles for safe disposal, but I don’t know what it costs.
I know in California (where I live) you can’t put them in the trash or anything. I was using an empty laundry detergent container but I wasn’t sure if a disposal place would take them if they weren’t in a sharps container. Of course, I still haven’t found the disposal place so it doesn’t matter.
In Roanoke, Virginia, our city does not require any special disposition. I merely put my pump disposables in the trash for curbside pickup. In my last locality (also in Virginia), the city required me to put sharps in a sturdy plastic container (bleach bottle), tape or seal it, label it “sharps”, and drop off at the local sanitary station for disposition.
In any case, you should contact your local sanitation folks and request particulars for your area.
Thanks, I didn’t know who to call but I bet they have the answer. Have a great Thanksgiving!
I have been taking sharps in “official” containers to my doctors office for years. Only once did the nurse say"we can’t take those". I left them anyway and never saw that nurse there again. Our local trash folks say to put them in a sturdy plastic bottle and place with the regular trash.
Yeah, it’s kind of a Catch 22 in California: It’s illegal to dispose of them in the trash, but there aren’t a lot of disposal places. San Francisco Walgreen’s will take your sharps for you but the other ones won’t. The East Bay disposal place is very out of the way and hard to reach by public transportation. They want you to do the right thing but make it very hard to do so. So I just do what Gerri does and use a plastic bottle which I’ll label. Ironically I also use sharps for my cat as she is on sub-cutaneous fluids but my vet recently stopped accepting sharps.
yeah I went online and saw where the sanitation station is. It didn’t say anything about taping the bottles but maybe I should just to be safe.
What’s wrong with your kitty?
I take the sharps container to our local hospital and swap it for a new one at the nurses’ station. In the last community I lived, the pharmacy did a free exchange. When we travel I use a dedicated Nalgene water bottle with a screw top and dump them into a sharps when I get home.
I think there is such a thing as a needle exchange for drug addicts. I don’t really know. Does anybody in California know anything about this? My health insurance pays for all my stuff, I’m really lucky.
Here in the Portland OR Metro area, if you take a filled Sharps container to a Metro hazardous waste site, they take it & give you a new one all for free. The first time I went I had the sharps in a coffee container they still took it & gave me a free replacement.
That’s cool. I have a full sharps container and a half full detergent container. I was trying to figure out if they would take the ‘non official’ one so maybe they will.
My doctor gives me free “Sharp disposal bottle”. I think she gets this free from medical/pharmaceutical representatives covering her practice. When its full I give it back to her secretary who in turn gives it to the hospital/clinic for disposal.
My local hospital takes full sharps containers and disposes of them for me. Many hospitals have such programs - check your local hospital, frequently the housekeeping dept takes care of this. They will also take “make shift” sharps containers such as bleach bottles, detergent bottles, soda bottles, secured shut and label as sharps.
I get new sharps containers from my medical supply company where I get my strips, lancets, etc.
I think I will either call the hospital or ask the endo when I see her. It’s my first visit, so I’m kinda nervous.