We all want to do the right thing with sharps, strips and all of our waste. I find it really hard to get a answer from my municpality on the correct procedure for the sharps disposal. When I lived in Florida. I had to take it directly to an area at the land fill. I called my city in WI and it is like a Daaaa moment.
well, I need to keep it convenient for my son to test his blood sugar, so I have one next to his bed, one in the kitchen, one in school and one in his sports bag. Only 3 communicate to his pump, but there is always one available for testing…which I have to remind him to check constantly…
I have two meters. I like my Walmart meter the best. I have one at my desk at work and one in my living room. As to the bio waste of needles, pens, and pokers I bring it to a recycling center in my county.
I just have the one meter kit that I use. I used to have another but it has been so long since I last used it, it wouldn’t be a good idea to try to resurrect it. I just carry my kit with me all the time, even as a guy I don’t see a problem with carrying this around with me.
If I’m in a place that has a bio-hazard waste bin then I use that. Otherwise, I just use the regular trash bin for my strips and lancets. I don’t have blood stained cotton balls.
My guess is that biohazard waste is handled a little differently, especially if there are a lot of sharp objects there like needles and lancets that could puncture a regular garbage bag.
I only got diagnosed two months ago, but I do have two meters I use everyday. My favorite is the Accu-Chek Compact Plus, mostly because it has 17 test strips preloaded inside. I love that the lancet is attached to the meter and that it is a glowing digital read-out. The lancet uses a smooth motion and doesn’t hurt.
My second favorite is my small FreeStyle Lite meter, as it uses the smallest blood sample size and is quieter than the motorized Accu-Chek. I bought the Accu-Check Multiclix lancet that is preloaded with 7 pokers.
I just use the regular trash. If I had a blood disease, I would use a bio-hazard container.
I have several meters…One I bring along everywhere, one at the car, one at the bedroom and one at the kitchen. My used lancets, test strips are in a bottle container given to me by my doctor. Once full, I just give it back to the hospital for their disposal. For blood stained cotton swabs, kleenex, etc… I have a tiny trash bin with plastic liner. Every so many days, I tie it up and dispose it in the regular trash.
Thanks everyone for your responses! Neat answers!
I acutally like putting my waste in the bottle because this way it is not only all neat but because I do my testing in my bedroom and everything in on my dresser - plus my cats like to fish stuff out of the open bathroom basket so don’t want them chewing on any stuff! I must admit I get lazy to put those circle thingys back on the lancelets. That hole is so teeney. I have gotten to useing one lancelt per day and it is working pretty good. It seemed a waste to use one per time.
My diabetes nurse told me that you are supposed to bring your waste to the doctors office but i don’t know if that was just her being a nurse or it is the law here. I am in Chicago. I will have to check it out. But if I throw my filled capped bottles in with the regular garbage who is gonna know - at least it is not loose. Honestly they look kinda artsy all filled like that - I could get shelves and line them up like souvenier beer cans! haha!
Yeah, I wouldn’t feel right leaving it loose - what if the garbage dude poked himself? Though I do the same thing with my used cat litter since it is biodegradable I put it in a paper grocery bag and staple the top shut - who wants old kitty litter falling all over them - yuck. One day the one thing will biodegrade. 
Too bad they can’t make reusable strips - oh wait, maybe they CAN but they just don’t want to because how would they make any money off of all of us?
I actually have 3 meters but they are all different types. One was free and their is no way in the world I could afford the strips. The other was my first one True2Go which I like but the strips are expensive. I use the Walmart meter which is pretty nice. They are cheap too as are the strips so I can easily get another one to have kit for my purse.
Kimberly,
You don’t have to change lancets frequently. I use the same one for 6 months. Most people change them very infrequently.
I’ve got 3 meters I use. My prescribed one is a one touch ultra in mg/dl, I have an ultra smart from the UK in mmol/l … its a better meter and I can’t get it here in France, my prescribed strips work in both. The third one is a accuhek compact, again in mmol from the UK, I use that when I run races, I can’t get the strips for that here so have to buy them in the UK (so it’s too expensive to use often). I’ve become ‘bilingual’ in the different readings.
I get a sharps bin on prescription either from the pharmacie or from my prestataire. She’s a nurse employed by the company which deals with all the pump supplies, she does a home visit every 6 months. I can dispose of them at the dechetterie (recycling centre ) or give them to back to the nurse for disposal.
Recently we had a general ‘recycling’ leaflet from the local authority which included a bit about ‘bio-hazard’ waste, complete with references to French and EU law. It said that all such waste ,which includes not just needles, but also cannulas, tubing, strips and lancets, had to be disposed of in sharps containers and within 6 months of use.
Until i went on the pump (about a month ago) i only used 1 bg kit, Now though I have 3 kits that i am using regularly. (i have amassed 4 kits over the years, all one touch. a mini, an ultra and the newer wireless one (came w/ the pump) and one like that that is not wireless). i pretty much have one in my backpack, this get’s carried w/ me quite a bit, one at work and a backup at home (so i can leave the one in the backpack and nothave to keep packing and pulling out) then the last one is in the car, just in case. I suppose if i did not already have the extra’s i’d just use one, but i figured since i have them… This is also in addition to my new CGM- it’s funny I am using the meter far less often (used to test 10+ times a day on MDI) but have 3 meters in rotation instead of the one… 8)
We use a Ping pump with its own meter. For emergencies (like when the meter face cracked), we have a slim meter that uses the same kind of strips.
My daughter carries a tube that seed beads came in with her, and puts her strips and lancets in it throught the day. At home, she empties them into our sharps container, a used detergeant bottle.
At home, strips go in the trash; they’re like bandaids.
Our large city just asks that we mark our sharps container “medical waste”, tape up the lid, and put it in the regular trash.
i have one meter and it’s five (maybe six) years old. in all my years i’ve never had more than one. just a personal quirk.
as for waste … i’ve never thought about it. i used to break the needle off my syringe and toss in the garbage. don’t think twice about tossing test strips; it’s such a small amount of blood.
as for lancets … i only use maybe 6-8 per year so they go in the regular trash too. in this case the bigger environmental risk is from the rust rather than blood.
I have four meter kits. The reason is every time I’m in a research study they give me one. I put the syringe heads in empty two liter soda pop bottles, then throw them away. Some of the syringes I save for art.
Frank
hey guys i use two meters one at home, one in my purse both are one-touch, i dispose of my needles,in sharp container i got at drugstore,alsi lancets,trying to be safe so know one gets stuck or sick from mine, have great day
I used one meter kit in my bag(Optium Exceed) and another for home(Abbott FreeStyle papillon lite). For the other question. I use a bd collector and I bring it to a city hall where there’s a service to collect all. It’s for my town. 9 districts only one place where there’s this service…