Sharps Containers

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I'm at a private school in Illinois. The nurse I replaced said she has no idea what to do with the sharps container, but its larger so it didn't fill during her 2 years as nurse. There isn't a number on the container (pharmacy told me to look), and the few pharmacies I called said they won't take it. I emailed a colleague at a nearby school, but got no response. What do I do with it?

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Specializes in Home Health,Dialysis, MDS, School Nurse.

I take mine to our local hospital and they incinerate it. Maybe call one near you?

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^ Same. Our local hospital disposes of ours and we order new ones from School Nurse Supply. I've never filled mine completely, but I do get a new one every year. It will probably take some phone calls on your end to work out a plan. Also, if there's a doc that signs your standing orders, their office may have some advice.

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Specializes in school nursing, ortho, trauma.

occasionally hospitals will take sharps. I know that my local ones will if it's not an enormous amounts. I get the mail away ones now.

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Specializes in Med-surg, school nursing..

We have a company that picks up all of ours for the district. Boss lady takes care of it so I'm not sure who it is.

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Specializes in School health, pediatrics.

Also, you can call your local waste department, there is a weight limit for biohazardous waste that can be disposed of in normal trash as long as it is safely packaged and appropriately lableled.

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Specializes in OR, peds, PALS, ICU, camp, school.

We are allowed (by local regulation) to dispose of ours in our biohazard bag once it was securely taped shut.

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Specializes in School Nurse, past Med Surge.

For future, since you seem to not go through sharps often... I ordered a sharps container that comes with a box to ship it off for disposal.

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Specializes in Peds.

We take ours to our local health department and they dispose of it with theirs.

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Specializes in Med/Surg/Infection Control/Geriatrics.

Check your Infectious Waste Policies and Procedures. If the phone number wore off, perhaps the name of the company contracted to pick up the waste will be listed. If not, check with your Admin to find out who the responsible party is.

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I package mine up and send it off to be disposed of. There are several forms that have to be filled out and instructions for packaging. The one I had that I didn't have a box for, I called the local hospital and they allowed me to bring it to their facility for disposal.

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Our school physician let's us drop them off at his office.

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