Sharps Containers?

[Simon]

At a year on T I have a full sharps container. I can't find any hospital, doctor's office, or pharmacy that will take them because they say it takes money to dispose of them. When my wife had her surgery last week she thought of asking a nurse and that nurse said about the only thing we can do is wrap the sharps container in tape so nothing could possibly come out and then throw it in the trash bin. That just doesn't seem right to me.

What do you guys do with your full sharps containers?

[LordKAT]

Turn them in to Walgreens. Not all Walgreens take them, it depends on city rules.

[Simon]

Turn them in to Walgreens. Not all Walgreens take them, it depends on city rules.

Nope, that is one of the pharmacies I have called. I have literally called every store with a pharmacy and hospital in the area.

[Arch]

Pharmacies have a list of places you can dispose of sharps containers--have you asked? Even so, options are very limited in my neck of the woods, and it looks like I will have to dispose at the local dump, pay a fee, and go only on designated days. So I have stacked my sharps containers in the shed. I have some of mine and one or two from a trans friend.

They are all BD containers, but the last container I bought is from a different manufacturer and has some kind of mail-in option that I haven't looked into.

If I had a friend in a health care profession, I might ask him to do me a favor and get rid of the darned things...

[Cindy]

Have you tried a local Pathology lab? We get rid of so many one more wouldn't matter.

[Simon]

Pharmacies have a list of places you can dispose of sharps containers--have you asked?

Yeah, I get my T at Costco and asked them (asked Walmart too since I get my needles there) and all I get are blank stares and I don't knows. Other places I have called and asked to no avail. I've called recycling centers as well.

Good idea about the dump but then again I'm afraid some animal will get hurt by them if I do that.

Have you tried a local Pathology lab? We get rid of so many one more wouldn't matter.

Nope, haven't tried one of those. I'll see what they say, thanks.

[Arch]

Good idea about the dump but then again I'm afraid some animal will get hurt by them if I do that.

Our dump takes them on certain days but apparently requires a fee.

[Farm Boy]

I was never given a sharps container.  I asked about getting one, but my doctor said to just put them in a sturdy plastic container and put them in the trash? 

[yaka]

How about disposing them a needle exchange center?

[ajayjo]

You can take them to medical waste disposal company or sharps disposal by mail either but it depend on your state. I use sharps disposal by mail often.

[Sarah Louise]

I take mine to a fire department that takes them and gives me a new container for free.

[aleon515]

How about disposing them a needle exchange center?

Not all states allow needle exchange but you can google and see if your state does this. If it does then it's a good idea.

--Jay

[blink]

This won't help needing to dispose of a full sharps container, but for future disposal, would a "needle clipping and storage device" work? They're usually for insulin syringes, it clips the needles off and can contain hundreds inside with no way of them getting back out. So it can just be tossed in the trash. Takes up less space than a sharps container, too.

[Simon]

would a "needle clipping and storage device" work? They're usually for insulin syringes, it clips the needles off and can contain hundreds inside with no way of them getting back out. So it can just be tossed in the trash.

Never heard of one of those but I'll definitely be looking online at medical sites to see what they're all about, thanks.

[blink]

Unfortunately I didn't think this idea all the way through, all the needle clippers I'm finding online are for 28 to 31 gauge needles. But maybe they make them for other sizes and I'm just not finding it.

[Simon]

Unfortunately I didn't think this idea all the way through, all the needle clippers I'm finding online are for 28 to 31 gauge needles. But maybe they make them for other sizes and I'm just not finding it.

No worries, I'll look into it anyways. The hubs screw off the syringes I have anyways so if anything I might just start keeping the hubs and tossing the syringes to make the sharps containers last longer.

[Kreuzfidel]

We turn ours into my wife's work - she's a vet nurse.  Try your local veterinarian.

[Magnus]

http://www.safeneedledisposal.org/

Personally, if you can't find a legit way to dispose of them... then I really don't see as how you have any other options beyond throwing it away anyhow, or else holding on to it indefinitely until or unless you do find somewhere that will take it off your hands and get it out to these special 'collection centers'.... which is pretty inconvenient and unlikely to actually be done by very many.

And just in case this can help you or anyone else, what I personally do with my needles and because I can simply re-cap and then remove the needle from my syringe barrel (no breaking off, cutting etc. Just one more reason I love luer locks), is that I simply throw away the syringe barrel but I then put only the re-capped needles (since they're my own, no reason not too) into my sharps container. The result is that after a year and three months (my dose schedule is fortnightly) I am not even remotely close to it being full and we're talking about a fairly small container here... it is smaller than a full size coffee can. Seriously, I am more likely to use it up faster with my double edged razor blades than I am with my needles. Apparently razor blades command the use of sharps containers almost nation-wide too now, so win-win I guess.

Yeah so... if you do figure out what to do with them other than throwing them away, and proper/legally mandated disposal does cost money where you are and without any free place to turn them over to, this should save a hell of a lot more money than if you were to throw away syringe and needle together. It will probably take me half a decade to fill mine up lol.

Further, and still in the scenario of no proper disposal options, this method also decreases the odds of someone misusing your gear because there won't be any syringe barrels in there with the needles and the likelihood of them finding just the right syringes to work with those needles would be frankly astronomical. Again too, if you re-cap the needle first, that would better circumvent wildlife being inadvertently and negatively impacted if you did have no alternative but to throw them away in the trash. And yeah, I also agree that taping it up first would be good.

[David27]

My mom is a nurse, so she just takes them and disposes them at her work. She did that when I was on other meds that required injecting. Ask you nurse friend is probably your best bet.

[Ms. OBrien CVT]

Contact the local recycler and ask about hazardous materials disposal.  Here in Oregon that is where they go.