Argh. Sharps bin has accidentally gone into the recycling

[HerculesMulligan]

I'm on daily Clexane injections during pregnancy and filled a sharps bin with used syringes during the first few months. Our local pharmacies won't take it so it's been hanging around full for a few weeks until my next hospital appointment and I left it in a prominent place on the kitchen worktop last week so I wouldn't forget.

Stupidly, that prominent place was fairly near where I put recently washed recyclable tubs etc before they go into the outside bin. We've just realised that our cleaner must have put it into the recycling bin with everything else, and the bins were collected on Friday morning.

I'll phone the waste dept at the council first thing on Monday but there's nothing else I can do, is there? I am kicking myself and feeling crappy for the poor binmen, albeit that they'll have just tossed the whole thing in sealed so weren't at risk. It's the recycling plant where it could get tricky, I think.

it might not actually be recycled, it depends where you live.

You can email or phone them but there isn’t anything they can do I would imagine.

It will have happened before.

I could be wrong, but I'd imagine if you work with any kind of waste, there will be procedures for situations when you're cut or you come across something that shouldn't be there.

You did the right thing alerting people.

(Btw, aren't they a fucking nightmare?! I still have a sharps bin languishing from over a year ago, because I can't find anywhere that will take it!)

Won't the bin be clearly labelled with what it is? The recycling plant workers might have been trained to recognise them

How did your cleaner manage to mistake the sharps bin for the recycling? Aren't they usually clearly marked?

It's bright yellow and clearly marked, but I think she was probably just on automatic pilot.

@SarahAndQuack I have two bin liners full of sharps boxes as I can't get anyone to take responsibility for taking them. Don't worry too much, they'll know what to do when they see it and it's all sealed.

I took mine to the doctors surgery and they took it without any problem, although this was a couple of years ago. Are they no longer accepting them either?

I've got boxes of them under the sink from DP. I work in pharmacy so you'd think id be able to get rid of them! It'll be fine OP, I'm sure these things happen. I'm sure addicts with needles don't pop them in a sharps bin, a few of our patients leave used needles in their handbags

Not a clue on the recycling issue but I take my sharps bin to the doctors surgery reception. As long as you’re on their patient list they will take them off of you, as far as I understand it anyway

I work in a doctor's we take them we get clinical waste picked up weekly. Did it have your details on we have to fill all the details in in case of needle stick injuries for staff but if it was locked I would think it would be ok and I'm sure the recycling plant will know what it is but I'd give a ring on Monday anyway

My local council pick mine up . Had to get letter from dr . Just ring when need new ones they pick up n dispose of old ones .

Our council does a collection service for sharps boxes. You just call them and they come the next day.

Every council should have a clinical waste collection scheme. You may need a letter from a doctor or nurse (eg diabetic specialist nurse) but they will arrange collection for free.

I’m a practice nurse and we can’t take patients sharps as we pay by weight and volume for clinical waste removal. We are also responsible for safety of the items and can’t ensure that with patients sharps.

I’ll take the odd jam jar of syringes or needles if a patient is only on something for a week or two, but any regular medication they need to contact the council.

GPs increasingly can't take them as the council charge the GP to pick them up. Pharmacies who dispense sharps should take them.

Our local council takes ours.

I'm on fortnightly injections of Adalimumab and the company that delivers them also collects the full sharps bins. Do you have your injections delivered.

Depending upon the type of sharps, you might have particular rules for disposal - neither the council nor pharmacies will take the ones for my PsA meds, for example, because they're regarded as cytotoxic waste. But if they're delivered, they have to be collected by the delivery company as part of their contract.

You might be stuck with taking the next batch back to your hospital pharmacy if that's where you collected the prescription from, unfortunately - with recent fuckups in clinical waste companies, nobody wants to have to pay to get rid of other prescribers' stuff even if it's regarded as standard sharps/waste.

I wouldn't worry too much about the recycling plant, though - the box is sealed, extremely tough for safety reasons and it's blatantly obvious what it is, so it will be seen and dealt with, rather than endangering staff in the way that a random bag of illicit works can.