Disposing of Sharps

 

All sharps must be treated as contaminated medical waste

“Sharps” are medical needles, syringes with needles, and disposable lancets used to collect a sample or inject medication in to a human or animal. 

According to EPA statistics, 8 million people or 2.6 percent of the nation’s population use more than 3 billion sharps at home each year.

As of September 1, 2008, California law (SB-035) requires that all Sharps must be collected by one of the following methods:

  1. A Household Hazardous Waste program
  2. A home-generated consolidation point
  3. A medical waste generator's facility, or
  4. A medical mail-back program.