Warning over steep rise of medical sharps in bins

Both Norfolk county council and Norfolk Environmental Waste Services (NEWS) – the arms length recycling firm the council owns – are appealing to members of the public to ensure that they correctly dispose of potentially dangerous materials in a bid to stop “sharps” causing injury to workers and putting them at risk.

This comes after Ray Wood, supervisor of NEWS' Costessey recycling and waste transfer centre outside Norwich, last month received a puncture wound from a syringe while carrying out an initial hand sort of waste material at the site's materials recycling facility.

Steve Jenkins, local authority contracts manager for NEWS, said: “Putting medical sharps into recycling bins poses a real danger, as we have seen from this recent incident. Unfortunately, the amount of medical sharps found in recycling material is increasing steeply and the public need to be aware of this problem and think more carefully about how they dispose of needles.”

“Anyone using medical sharps needs to dispose of them in the correct way via needle exchanges, or sharps boxes, which are available from clinics,” he added.

Ian Monson, cabinet member for environment and waste at Norfolk county council, said: “Although we are delighted that people are recycling, they need to be more careful about they put into their recycling bins and understand how this mechanised recycling process that has diverted tens of thousands of tonnes of waste away from landfill actually works.”

He added: “Medical sharps are not recyclable through doorstep collections and are a real hazard to recycling centre workers. We hope the public will take this matter on board and act more responsibly.”

Safety

The Norfolk appeal comes nearly a year after the Health and Safety Executive recommended ways to counter the risks posed by medical sharps – or “drug-related litter” – for those working in waste and recycling. (see letsrecycle.com story)

The guidance recommends using wheeled bins rather than plastic sacks for the collection of household waste, as well as puncture-resistant clothing for collection operatives.

Currently, the Costessey plant operates a system tailored to remove any medical sharps from sorting, with employees pushing the emergency stop button when waste is spotted on the line so the needles can be picked up in sharps box and disposed of correctly.

However, in the incident in question, the syringe was obscured and Mr Wood was injured while picking up a piece of paper.

Rise

NEWS has seen the amount of medical sharps going into recycling bins rise from 290 incidents in 2006 to 591 a year later and, so far this year, there have been as many as 473 incidents.

And, it claims that the issue of contaminates entering recycled waste streams goes beyond medical sharps to include waste such as engine parts and plastic toys, which prove a time consuming obstacle in a busy sorting facility.

Mr Jenkins said: “Dangerous materials, such as medical sharps, pose a real risk to our people, but all contaminants cause additional cost and problems for us. What can and cannot be recycled from doorstep collections has been made clear by all Norfolk's local authorities. Every contaminant we receive at Costessey has to be removed by hand before going through the automated sorting process.”