Sharps bin question

[coldclarity]

What do you put in yours? The obvious answer is "sharps" 😛

Obviously, unclipped needles and lancets go in, but what about used test strips and empty insulin vials? What have you been told to do, and what do you actually do?

Just asking cos I've filled a 1 litre sharps bin in just under three weeks, and I'd really like it to last longer. I need to get a new needle clipper for one thing, cos that would cut down on a lot.

 

[Northerner]

I put unclipped needles and lancets in mine, all the other disposables go into the ordinary waste. I wasn't told anything about what I was supposed to put where. I've got a BD clipper - got it on prescription - but only use it when out and injecting, which isn't very often. My bin last about 6 months, I think it's a 4 litre one (will have to go and check!)

 

[Copepod]

Good plan to make your bin last longer - contents will be incinerated, which is a very expensive way to dispose of waste.
What are your insulin vials / cartridges made of? Glass, I guess, like mine, which I put in glass recycling bins. Blood glucose test strips have far less blood than used sanitary items, which should be disposed of in regular landfill waste at home or sanitary bins in work or other locations (NOT down toilets!)
However, local councils deal with waste differently, so worth speaking to your local council, as there's not much point you knowing what my council does. Last week I attended a Chartered Institution of Wastes Management Waste Awareness one day course, with people from 4 local councils within a single county council area - and each had different combinations of which wastes were collected from kerbside / recycling stations (eg supermarket car parks) / "tips".
I am hoping that a MSc Environmental Technology student will take up the whole issue of diabetes related waste for their thesis, but no takers yet.

 

[Northerner]

Quick question Copepod - doesn't the rubber/plastic stopper in the insulin cartridges 'contaminate' the glass for recycling? I know there are various things that shouldn't go into recycling waste, like Yellow Pages (they're already made from recycled paper and it degrades the quality of any subsequent paper if they're used again).

 

[janine19]

I have a question too. What about disposable pens? No one has told me where to dispose anything other than needles so I put pens in sharps bin with needles and testing strips in normal bin.

 

[Caroline]

At home my sharps go in a sharps bin. My test strips go in the black bin i.e not the bin for recycling or the bin for food and garden waste but the bin for everything else. When my sharps bin is full I am to take it back to the doctors and get a new one, and if I'm lucky a doctors appointment too. The what's left over/black bin is incenertaed. Our local council tells us it uses an environmentaly friendly incerator that produces its own power with no emmissions.

At work sharps and test strips go in an empty plastic bottle and a very nice man on the building/estates help desk arranges for safe disposal ever time I get a full bottle.

 

[Copepod]

All waste can take a small percentage of contamination - rubber cap would be burned off in the heat used to melt glass. What is far more serious contamination (affecting waste recyclers) is eg putting brown / blue / green glass into clear glass containers, as clear glass is far more valuable than coloured glass, or putting plastics other than what is asked for (usually bottles only, marked with triangle around figure 1, 2 or 3, or just 1 or 2. UK has a particular problem with glass, as whisky is exported in clear glass, while red wine and some lagers are imported in green glass, and some beers imported in brown glass. Clear glass for jam jars, coffee jars etc tends to stay within domestic boundaries. Mixed glass can be used eg for road / cycle way surfaces, but it's not as financially valuable.

 

[Copepod]

Janine - What to do with disposable pens? Have you tried multi-use pens? If you find these acceptable, then use them instead. I refused to use disposable pens when first showed them, purely on environmental grounds - there are so many other pens, that I'm pretty sure you could find something suitable with the guidance of your diabetes team. In the meantime, if you can remove needles (or at least chop off point with BD Safe Clip), then the remainder of the pen (mixed plastic holder with glas cartridge) would have to go to landfill as it's composite material.
Northerner - In most areas, Yellow Pages can go in compostable waste, either to be collected by council or torn up and home composted - not regular paper collection, as the fibres are already very short, pages are dyed yellow and spine has gum. Also, shredded paper can be used for vegetarian animal (eg rabbits, guinea pigs, hamsters etc) or bird bedding (our ducks use my parents shredded work papers) before home composting go straight to home or council composting.

 

[sofaraway]

I put test strips in the normal bin, i put needles and lancets in the sharps bin. i do tend to put the glass cartridge in there, but might change that. It takes me almost a year to fill a 1 litre bin.

 

[vince13]

My surgery hasn't given me a sharps bin yet as I'm only on lancet use a couple of times a day. Am I being very naughty putting these in a plastic bottle, taping it up when full and putting it in the general waste with a "caution, sharp objects" taped to it ? I know I'll be given a proper sharps bin when I get onto insulin injections but in the meantime what else shoould I do ?

 

[Caroline]

My surgery hasn't given me a sharps bin yet as I'm only on lancet use a couple of times a day. Am I being very naughty putting these in a plastic bottle, taping it up when full and putting it in the general waste with a "caution, sharp objects" taped to it ? I know I'll be given a proper sharps bin when I get onto insulin injections but in the meantime what else shoould I do ?

I was given my monitor when I went for the day at hospital just after diagnosis. When I asked what to do with the sharps as I was worried about someone getting hurt, I was told just put them in an empty fabric conditioner bottle then phone the council when it is full. I checked with the people who empty the bins, who were not ammused to say the least...

 

[Heike]

I was told to put needles, lancets and test strips in sharp bin. Don't put plastic cup of needles in (can't seem to be able to put them back on 🙂). My 1 litre bin last me for 2 months, then take it to surgery and get new one on prescription. Don't know what to do with the plastic cover, so put them in black bin. Shame that they can't be recycled.

 

[janine19]

Janine - What to do with disposable pens? Have you tried multi-use pens? If you find these acceptable, then use them instead. I refused to use disposable pens when first showed them, purely on environmental grounds - there are so many other pens, that I'm pretty sure you could find something suitable with the guidance of your diabetes team. In the meantime, if you can remove needles (or at least chop off point with BD Safe Clip), then the remainder of the pen (mixed plastic holder with glas cartridge) would have to go to landfill as it's composite material.
Northerner - In most areas, Yellow Pages can go in compostable waste, either to be collected by council or torn up and home composted - not regular paper collection, as the fibres are already very short, pages are dyed yellow and spine has gum. Also, shredded paper can be used for vegetarian animal (eg rabbits, guinea pigs, hamsters etc) or bird bedding (our ducks use my parents shredded work papers) before home composting go straight to home or council composting.

Thanks Jean. I recently got a new pen for my novorapid which is multi use but not yet asked about Lantus as ive got a box left in the fridge. Since getting me new novopen I have got to say I prefer it to the disposable ones. Plus the cartridges take up less room in the fridge! I will enquire when I next speak to my nurse.
I have to agree with u on the shredded paper thing my rabbits and hamsters love it, they paly in it all day!

 

[sofaraway]

Since getting me new novopen I have got to say I prefer it to the disposable ones.!

the novopens are nice and definatly better than the flexpens. The usual re-fill pen for lantus is the autopen, some people like it some don't. It's not as good as the novopens.