No More Needles In Trash, State Says
2008-08-31Starting tomorrow, state law will bar residents from throwing medical sharps – including needles, syringes and lancets – into regular trash or recycling bins.
The measure, aimed at protecting waste workers and the general public, will complicate needle disposal for tens of thousands of San Diego County residents with self-medicated conditions such as diabetes, infertility, hepatitis and allergies.
Online: For a list of state-approved mail-back services for sharps, go to uniontrib.com/more/mailback. For information about drop-off locations in the county for household hazardous waste, which includes sharps, go to sdcounty.ca.gov/deh.
Few people know about the mandate, and even fewer know how to respond, said experts in the waste and medical fields.
“It really seems like there wasn't a lot of publicity around the law and people are really confused about what the options are,” said Kate Bartkiewicz, project coordinator for the San Diego Diabetes Coalition.
County residents generate roughly 27 million sharps a year, then put many of them in residential garbage or recycling bins. It's been common practice among needle users to collect them in coffee cans or milk jugs and toss those containers into the trash.
Regulated health care facilities, including hospitals, often get rid of their used needles and syringes through incineration or by sterilizing them before disposal in special landfills.
In July 2006, California became one of the first states in the nation to ban sharps from residential waste. The law included lag time so disposal programs could be developed.
The state Integrated Waste Management Board is in charge of rolling out the mandate. Andrew Hughan, its spokesman, said the agency has met with diabetes educators and created a searchable database of locations that collect sharps. The database shows five locations in San Diego County where people can drop them off.
“There are enough collection centers across the state, and we are encouraging local and county governments to open additional areas,” Hughan said.
Hardly enough patients have heard about the legislation, said Margaret Petersen, diabetes program manager for the Sharp Rees-Stealy Medical Group.
“I don't think (the law) is going to be effective immediately,” she said. “We all foresee people continuing to discard their medical waste in their garbage cans, or they will look for places where they can illegally dump it.”
Petersen is bracing for confused patients who want to discard their sharps at her office. She said her medical group won't take them partly because the disposal would cost too much.
Petersen researched companies that accept sharps mailed to them in approved containers. Such programs are convenient but can be expensive – hundreds of dollars a year for people who use lots of needles, she said.
As a nurse, Cheryl Armstrong of Mira Mesa heard about the sharps law months ago. But she still doesn't know how she'll get rid of the three needles a day that she uses to control her diabetes.
“I'll probably try a mail-in program . . . but I know it's going to be an expense,” Armstrong said.
Another alternative promoted by the state is to drop off used sharps at pharmacies or health care facilities, some of which are prepared to accept these waste items.
San Luis Obispo County recently adopted a law forcing pharmacies that sell needles to provide free collection containers and free disposal.
“Voluntary programs don't work. That's why we went with mandatory,” said Patti Toews, who manages take-back programs for that county.
Officials with the California Pharmacists Association said they were not aware of any pharmacies in San Diego County that will accept sharps.
“We don't have any way to dispose of them,” said John Cronin, who owns pharmacies in Escondido and Valley Center.
Mike DeAngelis, a spokesman for the national pharmacy chain CVS, said the company's stores generally don't accept used needles. CVS does offer mail-back containers for purchase on its Web site and will probably start selling them on a widespread basis.
San Diego County's environmental health officials suggest taking sharps to a one of nine permanent centers for handling household hazardous waste. Starting in October, the county will install drop-off kiosks for sharps in several rural communities and hand out a limited number of disposal containers.
If such efforts work, few people will be as relieved as employees in the garbage industry.
“This should help keep our workers safe, and not just our workers but janitorial staffs and anyone who may come into contact with a used hypodermic needle,” said Jennifer Andrews, a spokeswoman for Waste Management in San Diego County.