Issue 127 Item 11 Sharps, Waste Management, BD Launch Needle Disposal Program

The combined efforts of Waste Management and BD will make sharps disposal readily available to everyone who needs it.” Sharps Compliance Corp. is joining two other companies.Waste Management Inc. and Becton Dickinson & Co. to offer in November the nation’s 8 million in-home syringe users a safe mail back method for disposing of used needles and syringes. to help reduce the risks of injury and infection posed by improper disposal of used needles and syringes outside health care settings.

Houston-based Waste Management is the largest U.S. waste company. Becton Dickinson is the world’s largest syringe manufacturer.

According to Sharps, more than 3 billion injections and other skin punctures occur in the home every year in the course of treating conditions such as diabetes, hepatitis, multiple sclerosis and allergies.

Only a fraction of these needles and syringes are disposed of properly because there has been no practical method to safely dispose of them. In the solid waste stream, these needles pose a risk for needle stick injury or infection to children, waste workers and entire communities.

The Sharps Disposal By Mail System allows used needles and syringes to be disposed in a puncture- and leak-resistant container, reducing the risk of injury and infection to the community from needle sticks.

Waste Management is partnering with Sharps to market the mail-back disposal system to Waste Management’s 25 million residential and 2 million commercial customers in the United States.

"We want to bring added value to our customers and this product is an excellent fit for us. It provides a cost-effective means of removing needles and syringes from the residential waste stream in order to protect communities and our curbside workers," said A. Maurice Myers, Waste Management’s president and CEO.

BD will make the Sharps Disposal-By-Mail System available nationally through more than 55,000 pharmacies and promote safe sharps disposal through a national educational campaign.

"This program is one of the model solutions to the problem of improperly disposed needles in the community," said Robert J. Singley, vice president of sales and marketing at BD Consumer Health Care. "The combined efforts of Waste Management and BD will make sharps disposal readily available to everyone who needs it."