Used Empty insulin pens

Treatment
1

I have so many boxes of empty insulin pens. Can these be thrown out, or do they require special handling? Thank you in advance for any information.

2

Here where I live with no needle on it I cover and place in my big plastic jug I put my needles in. But I am sure capped you can put it in your trash. Nancy

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3

Me too, but I guess that without the needle as @twinchick Twinchick mentioned they could go in your trash…

4

I have never even thought to put them in my sharps container! Haha…I just toss them in the trash. Since all of the sharp things go in my sharps container, I think that it’s safe to toss them in the garbage.

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5

I’ve always used the reusable insulin pens and just buy insulin cartridges for them. The disposable versions are more wasteful and (I think) more costly. Is there a reason to go with those or is it maybe a matter of availability for members here?

6

I don’t see an issue with them going in the trash.

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7

My answer is for Lilly (Humalog) pens. It may or may not apply to NovoLog…

The advantage of the disposable pen (at least as far as Humalog is concerned) is that it is a smaller pen. The disadvantage is that the Lilly kwikpen does not come with 1/2 unit dosing, while the bigger Lilly Luxura HD (the big green pen in the picture) DOES have 1/2 unit dosing.

My workaround for that is to use Lilly’s insulin diluent, and dilute what I put in the kwikpen to 1/2 strength. That way I get 1/2 unit doses.

So best of all situations with what I have done in the past, is that I can have a smaller pen, and still get 1/2 unit dosing, and reuse it…

Picture here (and yes, I did put it on a chocolate box just for laughs…):

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The smaller pen is a big deal for me.