Biggest sharps bin's available to you?

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olliej96

olliej96

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Relationship to Diabetes
Type 1
Hey,

I've been getting the 5L sharps bins for quite a few years now, but i've noticed that they fill up way too quickly with my old pump/Libre accessories. I've already emailed the local council (where I get them picked up and delivered) and they've said 5L is the biggest size they can offer. Has anybody had any luck getting any bigger ones in their local area?
 
I’m only allowed 1 L
 
olliej96 said:
Hey,

I've been getting the 5L sharps bins for quite a few years now, but i've noticed that they fill up way too quickly with my old pump/Libre accessories. I've already emailed the local council (where I get them picked up and delivered) and they've said 5L is the biggest size they can offer. Has anybody had any luck getting any bigger ones in their local area?
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It may be that everything does not need to go into the sharps bin and much could be just put in your general waste. Sharps bins are just for sharps, even stuff with blood can go in the normal bin. I was quite surprised when we had catheter paraphernalia for a while it could go in general waste.
 
I have 4L sharps but ns on my prescription.
Putting only the sharp part of my pump and CGM in my bin ensures they past more than a year
And that includes my partner*s safety razors.
 
The issue might be with the collection service. You can buy a 60l but my council contractor will only collect up to 7l.
 
I was prescribed a 7 litre bin when I was prescribed Libre but I have never requested one and just use my 1 litre bin and disassemble the Libre applicator to remove the needle from inside it, so only the needle goes in the sharps box and the rest goes in general waste.
 
Only sharps go in the sharps bin, so any enclosed needles are in their own casing and can not poke bin man hence in the trash they go. Same as my cannula needle it's enclosed in own safety device so no need for sharps bin.
 
I have always dis-assembled things to avoid unnecessarily bulky (and not-sharp) things clogging up my sharps bins.

For Libre the inserter needle is really small, and can be fairly easily retrieved with a pair of pliers.

Dex G6 inserters are a bit more fiddly, but I’ve worked out how to get those apart now (the needle section is fiendishly complicated!)

Similarly the tslim set inserters readily give up their needle, and then can be split apart so that the recyclable outer can go in our kerbside recycling.

I’m not 100% sure what size my sharps bin is, but it’s 5ish litres I think. It’ll last best part of a year for me.
 
olliej96 said:
Is that through your local council?
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From the pharmacy. 1 litre lasts a month or two as I don’t put the libre in there since it’s completely enclosed, and only put the needle part of needles in not the outer plastic
 
None of the Libre goes in mine. Introducer needles for pump cannulas go in. They're not unlike map pins but the 'pin' is longer and much finer - so c.15 per month. Fastclix lancets are in sealed cassettes so they don't go in. The filler needles for pump reservoirs go in so c.6 per month. A 1 litre sharps box lasts at least 2 if not 3 months. Say a couple of pen needles per month (Never the outer cover) for the very odd pen jab I need to do. On normal repeat prescription - goes back to pharmacy when full.
 
The way I see it, any sharp whether contained in a cassette or applicator where it is retracted, should still be disposed of in a sharps bin. The reason I say that is that those appliances can get crushed in the bin lorry mechanisms, which from time to time will get jammed and need maintenance and small parts like that can very easily get built up in places they shouldn't and need cleaning out manually and that is when the risk of sharps becomes an issue. I know just from seeing farm machinery, how frequently small stuff needs manually cleaning out of mechanisms to keep them working properly and fingers are often needed to get into small awkward places to do that.
To me any needle contaminated with blood should be going in a sharps box and that is why my surgery prescribed me with a larger sharps box when Libre was prescribed, even though the needle is retracted within the applicator housing.
 
My son gets a 2.5 litre sharps been. We only put in the sharps and libre sensor. It lasts about 5 weeks.
 
Are some of you saying you pull the needles out of the plastic first? We throw away the whole screw on needle thing in the sharps bin.
 
We have a 7l at the moment. The cannula applicators are the biggest things that go in. We take off as much as we can but the main bit of plastic holds the needs tight. Dexcom applicator just goes in the bin as it’s all contained.
 
We have a 1L one and that lasts us ages. Used to last a year when we had Accu Chek pumps but now we’ve got T-slim it’s not even 1/3 full after a year. All we put in are the syringe needles used for filling the pump, and the occasional pen needle if we’ve had to use the pen in an emergency. Cannula and sensor applicators and even our lancet drums have all the sharp bits enclosed safely so just go in the normal waste. Used sensors themselves also go in the normal bin as they don’t have any sharp bits, the filament itself won’t hurt anyone.

no we don’t take the needle off the plastic - i think some people are meaning that they don’t put the plastic cap back on the needle, and some people take sensor applicators etc apart to get the needle out, I don’t though.
 
SunflowerMama said:
Are some of you saying you pull the needles out of the plastic first? We throw away the whole screw on needle thing in the sharps bin.
Click to expand...
Yes I put needle on pen, take off plastic top and bin that (it isn’t sharp so doesn’t need to be in the sharps bin) then use the needle unscrewing tool on the top of my 1L sharps bin to unscrew the needle from the pen into the sharps bin.
 
I have a needle clipper and the rest goes into the bin in a sealed container. the clipper itself can go into general waste too when full as it is sealed.
Don't have a sharps bin at all.
(all put into place by the hospital DSN and not GPs)
 
I had a needle clipper when first diagnosed but, after scratching myself a couple of times on a clipped needle, I stopped using it and used a sharps bin.
I did not find the clipper clipped far enough.
 
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