To stay within OSHA compliance guidelines and states regulations, one cannot throw their full sharps container in the regular garbage. Sharps containers contain extremely dangerous waste, and thus have to dealt with as such. According to OSHA estimates, 5.6 billion healthcare workers handling medical equipment such as needles, syringes and scalpels are at risk of exposure to blood borne pathogens from sharps-related injuries. Therefore medical clinics, practices, surgery centers, and other businesses that generate contaminated needles and syringes, must dispose of medical sharps waste correctly.
To start of the disposal of your full sharps container, one must make sure that they container is complaint with OSHA. This will make sure your container is puncture, leak, and label correctly for sharps. Now to dispose of this container, there are a couple different ways to do so. Medical waste companies offer mailback programs, such as MedPro Disposal. Theses mailback programs are a great way for a hassle-free sharps container disposal.
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For example, MedPro Disposal’s sharps/pharmaceutical program will come with a UPS return label, and all that needs to be done is the action of attaching that to the container and placing it in the mail. Another way to dispose of your full sharps container is to place it in a Medical Waste Box. This medical waste box accumulates multiple types of medical waste, such as sealed bags of medical waste. All of these ways to dispose of your container do require the labeling of sharps on the outside of the container. This is so they can separated from
medical waste
and other hazardous material. Separation of waste is key to have when determining the type of sterilization needed.
Common Questions
- When should a sharps container be replaced?
- The FDA advises disposing of a sharps container when it is about three-quarters full, and OSHA requires containers to be replaced routinely and never allowed to overfill. Close and lock the container at the fill line, and never push sharps in or shake the container to make room.
- What color are sharps containers?
- Most sharps containers are red. OSHA requires them to be labeled with the biohazard symbol and the word “BIOHAZARD” or be red. Yellow containers are commonly used for sharps contaminated with trace chemotherapy agents.
- What does OSHA require for sharps containers?
- Under 29 CFR 1910.1030, sharps containers must be closable, puncture resistant, leakproof on the sides and bottom, and labeled or color-coded. They must be easily accessible and as close as feasible to where sharps are used, kept upright, replaced routinely without overfilling, closed before removal, and placed in a secondary container if leakage is possible.
- How do you dispose of a full sharps container?
- Close and lock it, then have it collected by a licensed medical waste company or ship it through a mail-back program in approved packaging. Sealed containers are treated along with their contents, usually by autoclave. Never put sharps containers in the regular trash or recycling at a healthcare facility, and never reuse them.
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