Freestyle Libre, applicator wastage

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JDK

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Anyone else as concerned as me about the plastic wastage of the applicator that comes with each sensor? I suspect the vast majority of these go into household waste, ending up in landfill. Being made of hard plastic they will never break down, or at least not for hundreds of years, if ever. I put mine into a bag of general stuff to take to a waste recycling center that accepts hard plastic items but I suspect not many folk do anything like this.

Wouldn't it be better to issue a user with one applicator for repeat usage, with the option of requesting a replacement if the original is lost or broken? This would help reduce plastic wastage, and surely reduce the cost of each sensor and therefore the cost burden on health authorities and those users who have to pay for their sensors privately.
 
Hi
I too hate the plastic waste involved and it really depresses me but I am not sure there would be any other way to do it considering the applicator contains the needle..... talking of which I hope you remove the needle and dispose in your Sharpsafe before taking them to the tip.
Personally I wouldn't be averse to using the needle in the applicator multiple times (I am one of those naughty people who reuse their disposable insulin needles 😱 ) but I can't see it being licensed to be used like that.

I would be curious to know what happens to the hard plastics which are taken to the tip. I have my doubts about what gets recycled and what goes to landfill anyway or gets shipped out to a third world country to be dumped. I put a lot of work into cleaning stuff to be recycled and I often wonder how much of that is in vain. I think people would be more motivated if they had more information about recycled waste.

Just out of interest, what do you do with your needle covers... the cap and the actual needle sleeve? Obviously the needles go into the Sharpsafe.
 
This annoys me also! We’ve used Libre sensors, Dexcom sensors, and cannulas for both Tandem and Roche pumps. Out of all of those only the Roche cannulas come with a reusable applicator, you load the cannula in and it clicks into place with the aid of a blue cap which comes on the top of the cannula. Then you remove the needle cap and paper backing on the sticky bit, prime the applicator, line it up on your skin and press the button to fire. In it goes, then you remove the blue cap on the cannula, and the needle which is also blue on the end and just pulls out, then plug in the pump tube and away you go. The only waste are the blue cap and inserter needle which are tiny, and the packaging which it was packed in. Tandem cannulas come preloaded in single use applicators as do the Libre and Dexcom sensors which I find so wasteful, if Roche can do reusable ones why can’t anyone else?!
 
I don’t use the inserters but the ones for my Dana RS pump are re-useable 🙂
 
Hi, the Libre applicator does not contain the needle. The needle is on the sensor. The applicator just pushes the sensor onto the application site on your body. After that, the applicator itself - which as you know is quite a bulky hard plastic unit with a screw-cap - is redundant. Whenever the applicator is put into household waste it ends up in landfill. I think this is what happens to pretty much all the applicators used around the world every two weeks, unless users make the effort to take it along with other hard plastics to a proper plastics recycling center. It should be up to the manufacturer (Abbot Diabetes Care) to reduce the wastage in line with claims it makes on it's parent company's web site that it works to reduce its environmental impact. I'm afraid these one-use-only hard-plastic applicators now used by tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of users worldwide are a major burden on the environment. Like I said, a single issue applicator is all that is needed, so each Libre user gets one applicator, with the option of ordering or requesting a replacement as and when necessary.

I guess its up to us the users to make it known to the manufacturer that whilst we appreciate the product they have developed, they need to implement a change/improvement so as to reduce wastage. Isn't this the spirit of our times ... to be accountable for the impact we have on the world and reduce that impact whenever and wherever possible?

Btw, I replace the needle cover and cap onto the used pen needle and put the whole thing into the sharps container. I know one is not 'supposed' to replace the needle cover, just the cap so as to remove the needle from the pen, but its another way for me to reduce my contribution to plastic waste. Mind you, it all gets incinerated eventually, of which the gases get released into the environment .... and so it goes on! I do remove the needle from the used sensor. The needle goes into the sharps bin, the used sensor goes into a bag I keep for electrical stuff to be periodically taken for recycling at the same center that takes (some) plastic for recycling. The sharps bins get collected three times a year by the local health authority and are disposed of along with other clinical waste, which I understand means incinerated.
 
JDK said:
Hi, the Libre applicator does not contain the needle
Click to expand...
You’ve never undone one then! The sensor has a soft, bendy filament, which needs a needle 'introducer' to get it through the skin. It then retracts within the applicator after inserting the sensor. If you dismantle the applicator (carefully) you will find that there is a biggish (and sharp) needle within the applicator.
It also has a big metal spring, which I also take out, because our local authority is always telling us not to put stuff in the recycling that has metal and plastic mixed.
 
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I am afraid that you are misunderstanding the insertion procedure for Libre. The applicator contains a needle which is fired through the sensor and carries the sensor filament into the tissue of your arm and is then retracted by a spring inside the applicator. The sensor filament is too weak to pierce the skin without a needle. If you break apart the sensor you will find the needle inside along with a metal spring. You need to remove these before you dispose of them at the tip.
 
@Robin .... we are even for the day.... You beat me to it this time!
 
.....Oh and "welcome" @JDK since I just realised that you are a new member!
We must have another member with a similar profile moniker.
 
Interesting thread this. I did wonder how the filament got in the skin.

I am in agreement that it seems a terrible waste of plastic and, so far, as I am self-funding and have only been using the Libre for a few months, I haven't thrown anything out yet. This, obviously, can't go on for much longer!
 
If you take apart the dispenser, be extra careful with the large spring. You really should wear eye protection, because it can spring out unexpectedly. Use tweezers to remove the needle and put it in the sharps bin.

I don't live near a hard plastic recycling centre, not within the 30 mile range of my Mobility Scooter, which I don't want drive along the cycle lane of the A59.
 
I took my first lot of applicators into the surgery and told the nurse they contained sharps, and she put the whole applicators into a 7 litre sharps bin - and then gave me my own 7 litre sharps bin, so I've been putting the applicators in there ever since (it's now full - I've asked the surgery if I can have another one, but I suspect I shouldn't have been given one in the first place and they'll say no). The plastic lids of the applicators go in our hard plastic recycling.
 
I apply my sensor. The clear plastic “applicator lid”, instructions and box go in recycling. The rest goes in the landfill waste bin as the needle is retracted and only a problem when you pull it apart. Sharps bins are an added expense for the NHS and added expense to the council to dispose of so I only put exposed sharps in mine.

At least they have done away with the single use individually wrapped alcohol wipes which just went in the landfill. I haven’t needed them because I always shower with non-moisturising shower gel before applying a new sensor.

I would like to be able to reuse the applicator. Recycling is well and good but it still costs (financially and environmentally) to recycle.
 
JDK said:
Hi, the Libre applicator does not contain the needle. The needle is on the sensor. The applicator just pushes the sensor onto the application site on your body. After that, the applicator itself - which as you know is quite a bulky hard plastic unit with a screw-cap - is redundant. Whenever the applicator is put into household waste it ends up in landfill. I think this is what happens to pretty much all the applicators used around the world every two weeks, unless users make the effort to take it along with other hard plastics to a proper plastics recycling center. It should be up to the manufacturer (Abbot Diabetes Care) to reduce the wastage in line with claims it makes on it's parent company's web site that it works to reduce its environmental impact. I'm afraid these one-use-only hard-plastic applicators now used by tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of users worldwide are a major burden on the environment. Like I said, a single issue applicator is all that is needed, so each Libre user gets one applicator, with the option of ordering or requesting a replacement as and when necessary.

I guess its up to us the users to make it known to the manufacturer that whilst we appreciate the product they have developed, they need to implement a change/improvement so as to reduce wastage. Isn't this the spirit of our times ... to be accountable for the impact we have on the world and reduce that impact whenever and wherever possible?

Btw, I replace the needle cover and cap onto the used pen needle and put the whole thing into the sharps container. I know one is not 'supposed' to replace the needle cover, just the cap so as to remove the needle from the pen, but its another way for me to reduce my contribution to plastic waste. Mind you, it all gets incinerated eventually, of which the gases get released into the environment .... and so it goes on! I do remove the needle from the used sensor. The needle goes into the sharps bin, the used sensor goes into a bag I keep for electrical stuff to be periodically taken for recycling at the same center that takes (some) plastic for recycling. The sharps bins get collected three times a year by the local health authority and are disposed of along with other clinical waste, which I understand means incinerated.
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You seem to be misinformed on how this stuff works. There is no needle on the used sensor. The needle is in the applicator which you seem to be taking for recycling without removing. For your pen needles you don’t need to put the plastic caps on before putting in the sharps box. You only put the sharp needle in not the inner or outer cap, that’s why the top of the sharps bin has the tool to unscrew the needle. You’ll fit a lot more needles in and save money disposing of the sharps bins if you stop filling them with plastic.
 
TheClockworkDodo said:
I took my first lot of applicators into the surgery and told the nurse they contained sharps, and she put the whole applicators into a 7 litre sharps bin - and then gave me my own 7 litre sharps bin, so I've been putting the applicators in there ever since (it's now full - I've asked the surgery if I can have another one, but I suspect I shouldn't have been given one in the first place and they'll say no). The plastic lids of the applicators go in our hard plastic recycling.
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That is the official line I believe, that the applicator should go in the Sharp safe. I was prescribed a new 7 litre bin when I was started on Libre (I am still in the process of filling my first Iltre bin) but I declined it as I remove the needle and the remainder currently goes in landfill as my council don't seem to take hard plastics. Boxes and instructions go in recycle. I have actually amassed a box of used applicators in the hope that I will find a site for recycling as I get very depressed about plastics and landfill. I really feel bad about pretty much everything I put in my rubbish bin and I only haul it along the lane to be emptied about 4x a year and recycle goes out about 8x a year, but they are both pretty well full at that time. I would add that nothing particularly smelly goes in my bin so it is not unpleasant even after than length of time. I really wish we had a coherent national system as regards recycling and sharps for that matter, as there is so much confusion over these things and what is and isn't accepted practice.
 
Recycle box leaflet plastic cap, old sensor goes in sharps bin applicator in rubbish bin, dont get uptight about things you cant change as in applicator, it is what it is.
 
When I was on the course at my local Diabetes centre for the Libres, delivered by the Abbott rep a few years ago, someone raised the question of wastage and she simply said that it has been manufactured in a way that all of the items should be popped back into the packaging and simply popped into the recycling bin. She reassured us all that everything was recyclable. That is what I have been doing for the past 3 years.
 
Everything goes in general waste for Libre in this house, like others I was told the needle doesn't really pose any risk due to being enclosed in the applicator, I do the same with my lancets as they are all retracted back into the drum, even the old Libre sensor is put in the bin as it isn't really any different to a used plaster xx
 
Agree they could find some way of using a permanent inserter device. I have been using the same inserter for my Roche cannulas for the past 8 years. The cannulas are similar to the Libre sensors in that they have a soft teflon tube that’s inserted by means of a needle. The difference being that after insertion of the cannula you take out the needle, put a cap on it and place it in the 1L sharps bin, which takes me over a year to fill.
 
rebrascora said:
That is the official line I believe, that the applicator should go in the Sharp safe.
Click to expand...
This seems to be one of those pieces of advise that varies.
I was introduced to Libre by an Abbott rep when they were first released. His advice was to put the applicator in the general waste as I have been doing ever since.
 
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