Sharps bins, stupid bureaucracy!

[Northerner]

Just called the council to get my sharps bin collected only to be told I need to get a new referral from my GP. This is because, although I am already registered with them they haven't done a collection for a while. So now I have to bother my GP for something that shouldn't need doing, wasting my time and hers 😡

Of course it hasn't been collected for a while, it's a 5 litre bin!!!!

Grrr!!

 

[Caroline]

if the council wont collect it and the pharmacy and the GP wont take it who will? If you were taking ilegal drugs they'd be round like a shot...

 

[Northerner]

if the council wont collect it and the pharmacy and the GP wont take it who will? If you were taking ilegal drugs they'd be round like a shot...

They will take it, but only after I've booked an appointment with my doctor who then has to waste her time sending the referral. It's only the second bin I've had in 4.5 years and this one has probably taken longer to fill as I no longer put the plastic covers in, plus I've reduced my injections by 25% since April as I no longer need my lantus. 🙄 What I think has prbably happened is that they have outsourced the service and they decided that I didn't need to go onto the new database.

 

[Copepod]

Hope your GP includes a snotty comment about wasting her time, her patient's time etc when she writes the referral to the waste collection company - and charges the company, not patient, for the letter.

You're right about not putting plastic non sharp item into a sharps bin - in fact, in many places needle covers can be put in with plastics for recycling, whether collected by council or placed in large bins at eg supermarket car parks.

One of my hobby horses (and I'm not going to apologise for that) is encouraging people to consider the whole costs, environmental and financial, of medical supplies, including manufactering, transport and disposal.

 

[fencesitter]

How do you separate the plastic bits from the needle itself?

 

[trophywench]

Both the needle covers is what we are on about, the big one with the paper seal (take that completely off) and the needle cover - those go in tour recycling, just the needle complete with it's fixed 'mounting' which attaches to the pen, goes in the sharps bin.

Some people clip the big bit of the needle off (into sharps bin) and chuck the bottom bit but I don't think you should, because a pen needle has also the bottom bit which pierces the bung on the cartridge. A small finger could easily get 'stuck' on that bit and when you see those kiddies all over the piles of rubbish in forrin parts, it makes me cringe - they would be properly contaminated by that point by the rest of whatever's decomposing already.

I am actually in two minds about pump tubing and reservoirs - now neither of them have been 'in' me but they are contaminated if only with insulin which doesn't harm you if you ingest it, so I take the view it all goes in the plastics recycling. Along with the cannula packaging, which is ridiculous on my cannulas. However, I'm really not sure how they could actually reduce it. They probably aren't either!

 

[Austin Mini]

In Lincolnshire we have a much simpler method of sharps boxes removal. We take them to the surgery and drop them off.

 

[Northerner]

In Lincolnshire we have a much simpler method of sharps boxes removal. We take them to the surgery and drop them off.

It was even simpler here - I just rang them up and left it on my doorstep!

 

[Austin Mini]

It was even simpler here - I just rang them up and left it on my doorstep!

Wasnt that a bit risky leaving them there with kids about?

 

[Northerner]

Wasnt that a bit risky leaving them there with kids about?

The laser security system keeps the kids at bay 😉

 

[grainger]

Have to agree it seems crazy how difficult they make it for people now. You can't take them to a HWRC as they are seen as hazardous, you quite often can't take them to a doctors or hospital....
thankfully there's a clinic down the road from me that takes them, hoping it'll be simpler in London but I'm not holding my breath.

Hope it gets sorted quickly for you Northerner!

One thing that has made me laugh at the silliness of it all is my work though... because of where I work, I'm not allowed to remove my sharps from site so work now have to pay ?20+ if I want to dispose of a sharps box... it's crazy!

 

[robert@fm]

Some people clip the big bit of the needle off (into sharps bin) and chuck the bottom bit but I don't think you should, because a pen needle has also the bottom bit which pierces the bung on the cartridge. A small finger could easily get 'stuck' on that bit and when you see those kiddies all over the piles of rubbish in forrin parts, it makes me cringe - they would be properly contaminated by that point by the rest of whatever's decomposing already.

I've twice given myself needle stick injuries from the bottom bit 😱 (fortunately my own needles). I doubt that bit could be removed by a clipper either.

In Lincolnshire we have a much simpler method of sharps boxes removal. We take them to the surgery and drop them off.

That's the arrangement at my surgery as well. Like much else, sharps disposal seems to be a matter of the postcode lottery...

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

That's the arrangement at my surgery as well. Like much else, sharps disposal seems to be a matter of the postcode lottery...

Last time I looked into this your GP surgery and pharmacies have no legal obligation to take/dispose of sharps, but your Local Authority do. It seems that in different areas, different deals are brokered and arranged to facilitate disposal and doing it though surgeries/pharmacies is quite common.

I'm another who lives in an area where the local authority waste/recycling team has a number you call to book a kerbside collection of a [closed/locked] bin and re-supply of a replacement one.

 

[Copepod]

I've twice given myself needle stick injuries from the bottom bit 😱 (fortunately my own needles). I doubt that bit could be removed by a clipper either.



That's the arrangement at my surgery as well. Like much else, sharps disposal seems to be a matter of the postcode lottery...

Agree it's impossible to remove sharp bit that goes into cartridge, from inside "sheath" part of needle collar. But, I have found that, after clipping off the long bit of needle, by using the thin bit of plastic that covers the needle, I can push the sharp bit to one side, so that even if someone stuck their finger into the sheath, they wouldn't prick their finger.

 

[trophywench]

I'd much rather it go into the Sharps bin and be burned to a crisp, than the extra plastic go into landfill, Copepod.

We have a mixture of arrangements here - my phramacy takes the full bins, so I get a new one on prescription which I collect ready and then when I've crammed the old one right up to the line, I take it back to the pharmacy next time I'm in there (frequently as I can only get 28 days supply of thyroid and BP tablets on one scrip)

Or because I live over the border with Nuneaton, I can get Nuneaton to collect, but don't like leaving them out as we're on a main road, public right of way down the side of the house, bus stop smack in front of the house, lots of kids and teens about when schools start and finish.

 

[Tina63]

I've twice given myself needle stick injuries from the bottom bit 😱

I too have stabbed myself on the inside bit of one of my son's needles when I didn't realise it was in his bag. Lethal things. It damn well hurt as I didn't see it so it was a real stab.

 

[Andy HB]

I just wondered whether you have to fill it before getting them to take it?

You could ask them for the max period that they need without referral and make sure you get them to pick it up before that in future.

But it is a bit daft!!

Andy 🙂

 

[trophywench]

Well I only have a 1 litre, fits nicely on my kitchen windowsill behind the left hand curtain. I had it on 30 January this year, the previous scrip was April 2011 ! It's approx half full now, but that's pumping.

But they lasted about 5 months on MDI.

 

[Copepod]

I just wondered whether you have to fill it before getting them to take it?

You could ask them for the max period that they need without referral and make sure you get them to pick it up before that in future.

But it is a bit daft!!

Andy 🙂

If you look on outside of most sharps bin, they have a "do not fill beyond this line" marked, about 75% full - the reasoning being that if full, then you need to push last items into bin, which could result in a pricked finger. Which makes sense when bin is used by many people in a healthcare setting or laboratory, for example, with sharps from many patients, but not nearly so relevant if one person is filling a bin with sharps that have only been stabbed into themselves.