Walaska resolution helped launch pilot program for safe removal of ‘sharps’

Posted 9/23/14

Rhode Island patients who are prescribed “sharps” (needles, syringes, etc.) for their personal medical use are given specific instructions for proper disposal of the used items.

Despite those …

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Walaska resolution helped launch pilot program for safe removal of ‘sharps’

Posted

Rhode Island patients who are prescribed “sharps” (needles, syringes, etc.) for their personal medical use are given specific instructions for proper disposal of the used items.

Despite those instructions – the sharps are to be placed in a thick plastic container, taped shut and placed in a trash bag to be disposed of in regular trash bins – an official at the RI Resource Recovery Corporation said the containers of sharps are occasionally improperly placed in recycle bins. Some of those improperly recycled containers, said the RRC official, have broken open on the recycling line, threatening the welfare of (and sometimes actually injuring) employees on the line.

Although officials at the RRC had been attempting to find alternate means for the proper disposal of the sharps, Sarah Kite-Reeves, director of recycling services, said a resolution approved by the Senate this year gave the corporation the impetus it needed to move ahead with an optional sharps disposal procedure, using the already existing and successful Eco-Depot program.

Sponsored by Sen. William A. Walaska (D-Dist. 30, Warwick) and approved by the Senate in early June of this year, the resolution (2014-S 2520A) urged the RRC to plan and carry out a pilot program for the safe removal of sharps.

With the Senate resolution as its official directive to proceed, the RRC, said Ms. Kite-Reeves, worked with the Department of Health to convince the big three pharmacies in the state – Walgreens, Rite-Aid and CVS – to educate their customers about the new disposal option.

With the help of Peter Ragosta, Pharmacy Chief at the Department of Health, an informative rack card was prepared and contacts were made with the three pharmacies, soliciting their assistance. To date, Walgreens and Rite-Aid are fully onboard with the program, and it is anticipated that CVS will also participate.

Ms. Kite-Reeves said that 10,000 of the informational cards were printed and distributed to the pharmacies, containing directions about the proper way to handle and dispose of sharps for patients who use needles, syringes or lancets. In addition to reiterating the proper means for trash disposal of the sharps, the cards also inform patients of the option to dispose of the materials at the various Eco-Depot collections that the RRC conducts around the state during the year.

Walaska praised the efforts of the RRC and Department of Health in establishing the new disposal program and for recognizing “the growing need to inform the public about safe ways to dispose of sharps.” He was especially complimentary of the professionals at the RRC for organizing the program and working with the Department of Health and the state’s major pharmacies to advance the state’s efforts “to increase public safety through an environmentally safe sharps disposal program.”

The RIRRC Eco-Depot program accepts properly prepared sharps for disposal both on-site (Shun Pike, Johnston) on select Saturdays as well as at scheduled off-site locations. On-site disposal dates for the remainder of the year are Sept. 20; Oct. 18; Nov. 1 and 22, and Dec. 5 and 20. The Eco-Depot will be available at the following off-site locations for the remainder of the year: Sept. 20, Tiverton DPW; Sept. 27, Newport, Easton’s Beach; Oct. 4, North Smithfield High School; Oct. 18, Richmond transfer station; Oct. 25, Jamestown DPW; Nov. 1, Warwick DPW. (For more information on the Eco-Depot, to make an appointment or learn more about what material is accepted, go to www.rirrc.org/ecodepot.

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