Case Studies

The Challenge

Per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), over 2 billion syringes are generated annually by about 10 billion Americans who legally self-inject medications to treat diabetes, allergies, HIV and other medical conditions. When discarded in the trash or recycling, syringes present a risk of injury and disease to all citizens within our communities. In 2006, California SB 1305 made it a violation to knowingly place home-generated sharps waste in the solid waste stream. Determined to reduce and hopefully prevent needlesticks occurring among its solid waste handlers and citizens, a community in California found the solution with the Sharps Recovery System.

The Solution

When initiating the search for a solution, the community set several important criteria.

• Cost-effective
• Sustainable
• Safe for the environment
• Easy for the city to implement
• Easy for citizens to access and use
• Confidential
• Safe for city workers and the community
• Compliant with state and federal laws

The community saw the Sharps Recovery System as the perfect solution. Each of the challenges faced by having a drop-off site or curbside pickup was eliminated with the mailback option. The unique program was simple. The city regularly distributed postcards about the Sharps program to its households. Interested individuals simply could bring the postcard to a participating local pharmacy to enroll in the mailback program. They received up to three Sharps Recovery System solutions a year that were delivered right to their home or picked up at their participating local pharmacy. Once full, the containers were mailed back to Sharps for proper treatment, again right from their home.

The Result

The state-approved, award-winning program has proven to be successful while meeting all goals established. Citizens can confidentially and safely dispose of their syringes right from their homes – protecting city workers from potentially hazardous syringes.

An environmentally friendly solution was also important to the city. The Sharps Recovery System solutions are returned via the U.S. Postal Service to Sharps' treatment facility, reducing additional polluting trucks and cars on the highway. Additionally, the used syringes are repurposed through Sharps’ proprietary Waste Conversion Process into PELLA-DRX, an industrial material used by energy-intensive businesses, eliminating the disposal of syringes and other medical waste into landfills.

In this one city alone, more than 1,400 residents participated in the program during its first four years. More than 480,000 used needles and syringes were kept out of landfills, recycling centers and trash-sorting facilities. "We can only imagine how many needlestick we have potentially prevented by using the Sharps Recovery System. Every city should implement this simple solution to a very dangerous problem. Whether there is a law in their state or not, it’s just the right thing to do."