Many people faint at the site of a needle. Luckily, those people don’t work in Florida medical waste management. But, then again, who can blame them? One can easily get stuck on a needle, or cut on a scalpel or a razor blade. Physical injury aside (a good band-aid will fix that), there is also a very good chance for an infection.
Because of the dangers a used needle poses, they, as well as other sharps, should not be discarded together with ordinary waste. Seriously, do not put used needles in your trash can. Instead, place them carefully inside a sharps container. These are hard plastic receptacles that you can buy at a local drug store, medical or tattoo supply store, online, or with the medical waste management company. You can even use bleach and soap bottles (this goes only for individual needle users, but not for health care organizations).
Needles and other sharps should be probably discarded in a sharps container, as soon as they are used. Don’t lollygag with this. Leaving used and infected needles just lying around is never a good idea and the next person that comes around can get himself or herself stuck and infected. So, let’s try to avoid that scenario by properly using a sharps container. You’ll see that it’s very easy and certainly no rocket science.
Sharps containers should never be overfilled. The reason for this is that if you can’t close it, you might as well not have it. All those needles you diligently discarded can simply fall out of the receptacle and wind up pricking someone who is carrying the receptacle. The medical waste management rule for sharps containers is to only fill them to about ¾ of its full capacity. Commercial sharps boxes already have a fill line, so just keep an eye on it. Finally, when you close the sharps container, be sure that the lid will hold. It’s often a good idea (required by law in some states, even) to seal the container with some strong tape.
Once you’ve safely closed the sharps container, don’t forget to label it. You should put a biohazard sign on it as well as some warning like “Sharps Waste”, as well as an instruction that the box and its contents are “Not for Recycling”.
And Now to Dispose of a Sharps Container
Luckily, there are plenty of ways to dispose of a sharps container, and you only need to follow one to get rid of it.
Of course, prior to discarding a sharps container, you should have it stored somewhere safe. Hospitals and clinics have storage areas for medical waste, which sharps waste are one category of, so they put them all there. Individual users should make sure that their sharps containers are out of reach of children or animals.
You can take your sharps container to a local hospital, clinic, or even a fire department station. These usually have drop off sites where you can leave your sharps box. A word of warning about these drop off sites. If the drop off box is full at the moment, do not leave your sharps container next to it. Take it back with you and come back at a later time.
Next, you can participate in a needle exchange program, or you can send your sharps container to the ADA (American Diabetes Association).
Finally, another way to safely get rid of sharps containers is to sign in for a mail-back program with a Florida medical waste management company. The way this works is that you order a sharps container from them, they send it to you, along with an envelope with their address on it. When you fill the receptacle, you put it back in the envelope and send it back to them.
