hello all, forgive me if this has been answered before but that the heck do I do with my used insulin vials and syringes? Where i lived before there were no rules, you were to put them in a jug or can and trash them. However I can’t get a straight answer from anyone here, even medical professionals… My doctors said to ask the nurse, the Nurse said I take them to my pharmacy, the pharmacy said to call the hospital, the hospital connected me to the E.R. The E.R. said to ask the Health Department but they couldn’t give me the number. (really?) I found it online and they told me to call the Fire Department, who did say I could take my syringes to them and they would “probably” take them and dispose of them properly. Doesn’t sound very promising and it would be really lame to show up at the fire department with a million syringes and have them tell me to go somewhere else.
I live in Florida, can anyone tell me the proper and safe way to dispose of these things?
Hi Ish,
I live in Philly and there is no standard for disposing of medical waste. So what I’ve done for years is to put needles in large coffee can and when it’s filled I put a note on can informing whoever that it’s medical waste and do not recycle. My insulin vials I just throw in the regular trash.
I have all mine in a box from the last 5 yrs if you figure out what to do with them let me maybe send them all back to the manufactor to be recycled some how?? LOL
Personally, I put the orange cap back on the syringe, bend it (the plastic part) and toss it in the trash. I do have a sharps container but I only put the cgms needles in there because they don’t have any type of cap and the needle is huge. The pump infusion set needles have their own cap that is built in and again I toss them in the trash. There is enough to deal with when it comes to diabetes and what to do with used needles is my last concern. Every state has different rules and or laws, in the end all states are the same in that it is very difficult to dispose of the used needle/syringe. I wouldn’t worry too much about what to do just toss the vial and syringe (capped) in the trash.
Dave
I put mine in a hard plastic liquid laundry detergent bottle, duck tape the top on, and label it “sharps”. Then I just toss it into the trash.
I save pen needles up and bring them to the doctors office every 3 months when I get my A1C results, I put them in their medical waste bins or bags.
They told me I could put them in a thick plastic bottle like liquid laundry soap or fabric softener, ‘crazy glue’ it shut once it was full and throw it in the regular trash.
Buy a needle clipper and clip the needles, the needles stay inside and you can just ditch it when it is full or buy a sharps container and put them in that and take it to the local hospital.
They make a red plastic container especially for needles that you can fill and take to your local garbage/waste center, “dump”( if yours takes them) I think B&D makes them. You should be able to get them at any pharmacy, I know Rite Aid and Walmart have them. I’m not sure about the insulin. I would call your local waste management and see. That is how you can do it here in WA. Might even be a number on the disposal system box.
i used to do the sharps container thing when i was on MDI and i found that to be annoying so i just started to use laundry jugs, and now i use a milk jug.
I take syringes (capped) & empty vials to my vet. They dispose of bio waste all the time & she’s very nice about me dropping these off.
I was also shocked to find that there was really no policy. You are allowed to dispose of needles in the regular trash.
If you use syringes, I like the Voyager needle dispoal. It basically cuts off the tip of the needle and stores it in a hard plastic case. It’s pretty small, but lasts a while because only the tips of the needles go inside. The rest of the syringe (just the plastic part), I recycle with the plastics.
There are also services, like Humira, which are FREE. They send you a FREE sharps container and then you can mail it back to them. (I think that you have to pay the postage.)
I just throw away empty vials. I had never thought of needing special disposal for those.
Kristin,
Do you know what number/type plastic the syringes are? Plastic recycling where I live is limited to certain types. I’d like to be able to recycle them. Feel badly about how wasteful our supplies are.
Mostly, my vials aren’t empty when they expire. Have no clue what to safely do with them partly full, so my vet handles it with her other bio waste…
Here is a helpful site on needle disposal regulations.
I actually don’t know what number they are. Sorry. The recycling system in Hungary encourages us to recycle all types of plastic (they even welcome throwing plastic bags in there), which really makes me wonder what they do with it. So I throw in any plastic from my supplies as well.
Also, we get insulin only in pen cartridges, which means i always use it all up before it expires.
It’s great that your vet is so helpful!!
Thanks. Realize that was a strange question. My local recycling is limited & strict about what they’ll take. We don’t have home pick-up & have to drive to bring it to them.
My vet gets a lot of business from me:) I bring her expired animal vaccines & syringes used to vaccinate dogs & cats. Figured worth a shot to ask her about my stuff.
thank you! I keep trying to call the number available and it’s always busy! punks. I hope there’s a drop area close to where I live.
you expect something more appropriate, it just seems wrong to throw them in the trash. I bought a few of the little bd travel needle clippers and that works well, but i never remember to do it each time, so it adds up. I asked a doctor what to to with the little clipper filled with the needles once it was full and they said not to throw it in the trash but no advice on any other option. hahaha doesn’t make much sense to me… how they can not know this bit of information?
recycling won’t take the plastic part, which is a bummer.
thank you for all the info, will look into the Humira thing and see if it would work for me. Might be easier than driving to a fire dept every time.
that’s great and very lucky
. Everyone I’ve talked to here has told me they are not allowed to take them and then given me someone else to call and the cycle repeats.
yeah they add up fast don’t they! thank you for your reply.
I’ve seen them for sale and I plan on getting a couple at least to hold on the the large stash I have until I find out where I can take them.
thank you! I appreciate your reply!