Is this a safety hazard?

[Hilinenursegrl]

This issue was brought up last night here with another nurse and I thought I would throw it out there to get some different opinions. I have always put needles, and broken ampules in the sharps container but when it comes to the small glass bottles with the rubber thing to draw out of in the middle, like for toradol and such I sometimes put them in the sharps and sometimes just put them in the trash. My rationale is that the bottle is not broken and although made of glass, not really a "sharp." The nurse I was working with, a new nurse, told me I should always be putting them in the sharps container. Am I wrong to be putting them in the garbage can?

[lpnflorida]

I put those containers in the sharps box, it may very well just be habit with me as I can see your point. However, if the bottle somehow got broken even though it was intact when you put it in the trash, that could be a hazard to someone else.

[shodobe]

I see no real problem in putting small glass multidose bottles in the trash. The real chance of them breaking in all of the soft trash is remote in my opinion. Just see what what your department policy states. I have been throwing them either way for many years and haven't had a problem.

[BrnEyedGirl, BSN, MSN, RN, APRN]

I put them in the trash.

[nrsang97, BSN, RN]

I put them in the trash , they aren't a sharp.

[Farmer Jane]

I put them in the trash. The hospital pays big bucks for processing sharps, so if every vial was put in the sharps waste that would add up to quite a few nurses' salaries.

[Shenanigans, RN]

Sharps container. Because I dont' know what happens between me putting a glass bottle in the trash and it ending up in the tip. I've seen the way the orderlies handle the garbage bags.

Plus, once I picked up a garbage bag and somethign cut me through the plastic bag. It was a broken augmentim bottle. Someone had obviously stepped on part of the bag and cracked the bottle.

[jmgrn65, RN]

I put them in the trash, also we assemble our piggyback and you attach a small bottle of antibiotic to the bag you can't hardly put that in the trash. Ntg bottles don't fit in the sharps, mag citrate etc.

[MrsMommaRN]

The morphine and dilaudid glass cylinders I throw in sharps. Any medication ampule or small glass container should be thrown in sharps. Any person can pick out of the trash what you have left and use it form themselves or "share" it with others.

[Farmer Jane]

The morphine and dilaudid glass cylinders I throw in sharps. Any medication ampule or small glass container should be thrown in sharps. Any person can pick out of the trash what you have left and use it form themselves or "share" it with others.

You should be performing a witnessed waste with any controlled medications.

[Sonjailana]

I throw everything in the sharps..because people might even try to dig NON-controlled substances like phenergan from the trash..it does make people loopy and sedated.

[pink85]

I throw mine in the trash with any medication wasted away. As someone else stated, the hospital pays a lot of money to have sharps disposed of and it is technically not a sharp. We also throw other larger glass items in the trash. Housekeepers are supposed to be trained to treat all trash as if there are sharp items in it in case a needle gets accidentally thrown away. That is why you should NEVER push trash down to make room for more trash! When I worked pediatrics we had pedialyte that came in glass bottles and we always threw them in the trash.