Australia's Science Forum

I have been asked about the correct disposal of sharps.
How do you get rid of your yellow container when it is full ?

I give mine to the district health nurse when they do the vaccination injections.

Or ask your local hospital. I'd be surprised if they didn't help.
Lou.
PS I'm jealous of your impending trip to NZ, want lotsa pictures and infor from the conference K?

hi
the company that collects the lady sanatary bins collects my yellow bin every collecton,wether it is empty or full.Its part of their contract! Maybe its worth looking into.......
Matchstick

Hi
Rang a local chemist yesterday and they said they would take the sharps containers. They will also sell me a new one for $6! Can you get them elsewhere and are they any cheaper?
Regards
Sue G

Excuse my ignorance but why do you have a sharps bin in science.

I use mine for scalpel blades.
Lou.

I use mine in the prep. room for scalpel blades, the ones in the labs are for display only the kids can get the blades out if they try hard enough. So everything is returned to me for disposal.

Yes Scapel blades, old rusty nails, in fact any thing sharp.

Being only a school school, we don't go through many sharps. So I just wrap any in layers of newspaper and put them in the bin
Kathryn

I got one many years ago, thinking that I could put broken glass in it. But it was difficult and dangerous to put the glass in the top with the plastic "fingers". Easier to wrap it up in newspaper.

Why don't you just have a glass bin for your broken glass? I have a kitchen bin with a swinging lid for my glass. It has a "Broken Glass Only" sign on it (although i found a ham sandwich in it the other day!!).

Our sharps container is less than 1/4 full and I've been here nearly 3 years and it was already started when i got here. We mainly use it for scalpel blades.

Ohhhh I thought we all HAD to have a sharps disposal yellow bin? I do & ours takes a LONG LONG time to fill up too. Well worth the money - no potential cut fingers! I haven't had to empty it yet since I began work so I'm not sure what we do with it yet... will ask!

We also have a broken glass bucket that gets emptied into a recycle glass container.

Kelli

I've read somewhere (probably here on chemtalk) that the glass we use here in the labs is not recyclable because of the processes used in making it to be so highly heat resistant.

Yeah your right you can only recycle soda glass no pyrex and alike

I have a bucket with lid in each prep room for broken glass. They are labelled as "broken glass bin". When they are full I transfer the broken glass into a box which is taped securely and has broken glass written over every surface with texta. This is then disposed of in the industrial bin. For the disposal of scalpel blades I have small blue containers which remove and store used scalpel blades. When these blue containers are full I put them with the broken glass for disposal. The used single edge blades are also put in the glass bin for disposal.
Lyn.

I grab any solid box that stores come in that is about 30cm square. I line it with a garbage bag and tape down the sides labelling it BROKEN GLASS. There is one of these in each of my 3 prep rooms.

When it is full I tie up the bag, close the top back up and severely tape it up and put it straight into the dumpster. To me it saves rehandling and tipping the glass from a bucket into something else.

I think I just taped up my yellow sharps container when it was full and added it to the sharps box. It's not as if it's contaminated waste like from a hospital with the risk of AIDS or Hep B or C that needs to be specially disposed of.

Wendy ( who is enjoying her holidays but is that addicted to Chemtalk she still logs on from home to see what is going on)