Sharps boxes

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CoventryTrev

CoventryTrev

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Relationship to Diabetes
Type 3c
How do you get rid of your sharp boxes when they are full? I've asked my gp and chemist and they both don't take them.
 
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My council collect my sharps bin.
It has to be prearranged but once I have done so, I put my bin out on a Tuesday night when I go to bed and the magic sharps bin fairies have taken it away before I get up on Wednesday morning.
 
You need to contact your council to see what the local arrangements are.
 
I had the same problem
Pharmacy wouldn't take, hospital pharmacy wouldn't either they said they had no licence. I ended up putting mine in a bag in the normal rubbish.
From Cov council web site
Collections of clinical waste are made from properties, using yellow bags, where residents are referred by a doctor or nurse to receive this service.
Very little waste that is generated at home falls into the tightly controlled definition of clinical waste. Only items such as infected dressings, swabs and identifiable human tissue are actually clinical waste. Items such as catheter bags, stoma bags, incontinence pads, syringes which have had their tubing removed and ‘peg’ or stomach feeding equipment are not clinical waste. These are items which have had no contact with infective material, and are classified alongside used disposable nappies and sanitary products as ordinary household waste. They should be collected every other week along with your household bins. Cardboard packaging, aerosol cleaning sprays, and bottles of nutrition for stomach feeding should be disposed of through the blue-lidded recycling bins.

Unwanted medication should always be returned to your doctor or chemist for appropriate disposal. Needles and disposable instrument blades should always be put into a ‘sharps box’ after use.

Collections of clinical waste should be arranged through your healthcare provider. Each request for a clinical collection will be assessed individually in order to determine that we are providing the correct service to you. We will require full contact details for you, as we may need to visit in order to identify an agreed place for your waste to be collected from, and we will contact you regularly to check if anything has changed and that you still need the service. You must tell us if your situation changes.

We reserve the right to remove the clinical collection service at any time if it is not being used correctly.

If you wish to enquire about clinical waste collections from a doctors surgery, school, hospital or other, please visit the commercial clinical and hazardous waste disposal page.
 
Here in Cherwell the council don’t deal with sharps boxes but our GP surgery does. It seems to vary around the country.
 
My gp gave me a phone number for a clinical waste company - I haven't used them yet but understand I make a booking and they take the full boxes and leave new ones for me
 
@CoventryTrev - we live in Bedworth (just) but still attend our (previous) GP surgery in Holbrooks - Holbrooks Health Team in Wheelwright Lane. We use the pharmacy within the same building (though it's independent so anyone can use it) and they take the full sharps boxes back, which they have dispensed. So that's what I do with mine. If we used a GP in Bedworth, we'd have to ring Nuneaton & Bedworth Council and get them to collect my full bins.
 
High Wycombe Bucks. My wife is T1. We used to take full boxes to our GP, but they don't accept them any more. We have registered for Clinical Waste with Bucks CC, and they should come and collect. And hopefully supply a replacement box.
I'm a little concerned that we have to leave the full sharps box in our front garden for collection. Is this safe?

And I'd like to cut down on the amount of stuff put in the box. We've been putting the little plastic needle containers (don't know what they're called!) in the box as well as the needles. Is that really neccesary, or can we just put those in the normal waste? Is there anything other than the actual needles that should go in the box?

Thanks.
 
Geriatrix said:
High Wycombe Bucks. My wife is T1. We used to take full boxes to our GP, but they don't accept them any more. We have registered for Clinical Waste with Bucks CC, and they should come and collect. And hopefully supply a replacement box.
I'm a little concerned that we have to leave the full sharps box in our front garden for collection. Is this safe?

And I'd like to cut down on the amount of stuff put in the box. We've been putting the little plastic needle containers (don't know what they're called!) in the box as well as the needles. Is that really neccesary, or can we just put those in the normal waste? Is there anything other than the actual needles that should go in the box?

Thanks.
Click to expand...
The needle caps can go in the household waste so just the needle itself in the sharps box plus lancets from the finger pricker. Does your wife have Freestyle Libre sensors?
 
Geriatrix said:
I'm a little concerned that we have to leave the full sharps box in our front garden for collection. Is this safe?
Click to expand...
I have as similar situation, except I don't have a front garden or front step so the box is left on the public pavement.
I expressed my concern to my council and they told me that it is not my responsibility once it has been left on the street.
I was not happy with this response. As they collect it at 5:30am (before I wake up), I put it out as late as possible the night before (usually after midnight) and hope it does not get blown onto the road as I live in an exposed street.
 
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Medisort the company that are contracted by the council around here, collect from the door step.
 
I don't understand why this has changed. Surely it's more cost effective for collections to be made from the central locations of GPs and Pharmacies, rather than tour round the streets picking up from individual houses.
 
Geriatrix said:
I don't understand why this has changed. Surely it's more cost effective for collections to be made from the central locations of GPs and Pharmacies, rather than tour round the streets picking up from individual houses.
Click to expand...
This isn't a change for me - it has been the same since I was diagnosed nearly 20 years ago.
My pharmacy barely has space for deliveries of new drugs let alone a space for full sharps bins ready to be collected.
My GP surgery probably has a cupboard which could be emptied for the purpose but that is only useful for those of us who have no trouble getting there. I suspect many people who use medical sharps are less mobile.
 
Not all surgeries are that central, and I regularly see the van, driving around my area.
 
I have needle clippers on prescription, I have to dispose of that in general waste (it is a sealed unit) and the rest of the stuff, pop it in a sealed container (old shampoo bottle was suggested) and bin it with the general waste too.
I actually use coffee tins for the rest of the needles after clipping.
The clipper is handy when out too, nothing pokey when emptying my bag 😉
 
I used to have a needle clipper but stopped using it when I scratched myself badly on the remains of a clipped needle. I felt it gave me a dangerous false sense of safety.
 
We had a thread about the various different systems in different parts of the country a while back. Lots of different systems!

forum.diabetes.org.uk

Sharps Bins? Easy or impossible.

For members who create ‘sharps’ as part of their diabetes management, I am interested in how easy or difficult the local authority in your area makes it to gather and dispose of these properly. I recently did a straw poll on Twitter and 42% of respondents either had no system in their area, or...
forum.diabetes.org.uk forum.diabetes.org.uk
 
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