Safe disposal of sharps

Improper disposal of contaminated sharp objects can cause infections in your health care facility and community. Any delay in the disposal of sharps will increase the occurrence of accidents.

To dispose of sharps correctly:

• Do not recap, bend, or break needles before disposal, and do not remove the needle from the syringe by hand.
• Dispose of needles and syringes immediately after use in a puncture-resistant sharps-disposal container.
• Incinerate sharps-disposal containers in an industrial incinerator whenever the containers become three-quarters full.
• To discourage scavenging of discarded sharps, decontaminate needles and syringes that cannot be incinerated and render them harmless before burying them. (More information on burying and incinerating sharps appears in the Waste Disposal module of this course.)

Sharps-disposal containers

Puncture-resistant sharps-disposal containers should be conveniently located in any area where sharp objects are frequently used (such as injection rooms, treatment rooms, operating theaters, labor and delivery rooms, and laboratories).

Definition:
A sharps-disposal container is a puncture-resistant container used for the disposal of used needles and other sharps. A sharps container may be made out of a heavy cardboard box, an empty plastic jug, or a metal container.

Decontaminating needles and syringes

Whenever possible, make hypodermic needles and other sharps unusable by incinerating them. If sharps cannot be incinerated, reduce the risk of infections by decontaminating them before disposal, and bury them in a pit to make it difficult for others to scavenge them. (More information on proper disposal of sharps and other medical waste is covered in the Waste Disposal module.)

To decontaminate needles and
syringes...

Decontamination kills many micro-
organisms, including HIV and the hepatitis viruses, making instruments and other items used in clinical procedures safer to handle during cleaning. In addition, decontamination makes these items easier to clean by preventing blood, other body fluids, and tissue from drying on them. (More information on decontamination is provided in the Instrument Processing module.)

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