Santa RosaCountyprovides a free and safe solution for residents who generate sharps waste. Residents who have home-generated sharps waste are asked not to place the items in their household garbage or recycle containers in order to help protect waste handlers, the public and the environment. Instead, residents are asked to take sharps waste in a store bought sharps approved container with a secured lid to the Household Hazardous Waste Center located at the entrance of the Central Landfill, 6337 Da Lisa Road in Milton. Drop off hours are Monday through Saturday, 7 a.m. – 5 p.m. While state law does not prohibit the disposal of sharps in your trash, it can create a health hazard for solid waste company employees, landfill staff and the general public using the Central Landfill. Also, leakage may occur from leftover liquid in improperly disposed sharps and contaminate the environment.
Home-generated sharps include hypodermic needles, pen needles, intravenous needles, lancets, and other devices that are used to penetrate the skin for the delivery of medications. Loose sharps and sharps placed in plastic milk jugs, soda bottles, laundry detergent bottles, coffee tins or other non-sharps-approved containers will not be accepted. Sharps waste will also not be accepted from healthcare related businesses. Residents should keep sharps containers separate from all other waste and notify household hazardous waste staff that you have a sharps container for disposal upon arrival to the facility. The sharps containers are removed from the drop off site by a sharps disposal management company and safely destroyed off site.
Approved sharps containers are rigid, leak-proof, puncture resistant plastic containers of various sizes and labeled with the bio-hazard symbol. They have a lid that can be securely sealed to keep contents from falling out. Sharps containers can be purchased from medical providers, pharmacies or from a reputable online seller.
Residents can dispose of their household hazardous waste for free at the county’s Household Hazardous Waste Center, open Monday through Saturday from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Hazardous household waste includes household cleaners, motor oils, gasoline, car batteries, inks and toners, propane tanks, pool chemicals, and pesticides. Box Tops can also be turned in at the center to help the Santa Rosa County School System.
This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: Household Hazardous Waste Center Provides Safe Solution for Sharps Waste