Diabetic Sharps Disposal At Home
At home medical waste, including what is produced from diabetic care is regularly placed into curbside trash, placing sanitation workers and custodial personnel at personal risk. Here’s what you need to know about safe diabetic sharps disposal.
There are a countless number of people who have to treat themselves daily with needles and lancets to treat or test for medical conditions such as diabetes, hepatitis and multiple sclerosis.
For diabetics, care and treatment goes wherever the patient goes. They do this at home, school and work. These places don’t normally have a biohazard container on the wall, nor are there trucks picking up the used, contaminated syringes and other medical waste as is done in hospitals and doctors’ offices.
While many states recommend that patients dispose of used syringes in sealed plastic containers, there is no mandate for them to do so at home, and the needles, sealed or not, will end up in the regular trash.
For at-home or on-the-go diabetic care, the DEP recommends that people put the sharps in a puncture-resistant, hard plastic container. This can come from many common household items, such as an empty laundry detergent bottle with a screw-on cap. When the container is filled, it should be closed tightly and secured with heavy tape, placed in a paper bag and discarded with household trash.
In fact, it was in 2011 that the federal Environmental Protection Agency posted advice for how to dispose of medical waste at home or while traveling.
“With more diseases and conditions such as diabetes, cancer, allergies, arthritis and HIV being managed outside of hospitals and doctors’ offices, the number of sharps used in homes and work offices is increasing. In addition, pets are being treated in homes and livestock are being treated on farms, which are also contributing to the increased number of sharps outside of veterinary hospitals,” the EPA stated.
Of course, at-home medical care means making life as easy and convenient as possible for you and your home health aids. Instead of treating medical waste yourself, or if you’re unsure about collection sites, Red Bags has safe and effective methods of medical waste and diabetic sharps disposal, so you can worry about staying well and leave the rest to us.
No job is too big or too small for us. We offer next day service options for red bag waste and sharps, and we offer the right sharps container for at-home use. Contact Red Bags today to discuss our at-home services.
Service Areas: Long Island Medical Waste; New York City Medical Waste; Westchester Medical Waste and more!