434 Health Care Waste
Treatment and Disposal of Sharps
Many health problems from health care waste are caused by sharps. Needles,
blades, lancets, and other sharp objects can cause wounds and infections, so
they need to be handled with great care. Outside the health center, sharps may
put the people who collect and recycle waste in danger.
To reduce sharps waste, use injections only when they are needed.
(For information about when to inject and when not to,
see Where There Is No Doctor, pages 65 to 74.)
Safe disposal of needles and syringes
After injections, needles should be removed from
syringes and put into a sharps container right away.
Putting caps back on needles is dangerous and best
avoided. Unless you are using reusable syringes, always dispose of needles
where they are used. There are many ways to remove needles from syringes.
Any method should:
• use only one hand, to prevent needle sticks.
• dispose of needles in a hard container that they cannot poke through.
• be easy and comfortable for health workers to use.
How to make a keyhole box to dispose of sharps
A keyhole box is a metal box with a long slot in the top that
is wide on one end and gets narrower on the other. You can
buy them or have a metal worker make them. They can also be
made from coffee cans or other rigid metal
containers. What is important is that they let
you remove needles from syringes without
touching the needles.
➊ When you have finished using a disposable
syringe, put the needle into the slot and
slide it down to the narrowest point.
➋ Now pull up on the syringe and the needle
will fall off into the box. Put the syringe in a
waste container.
➌ When the sharps container is ¾ full, seal it with tape and put the
box into a sharps pit or a sharps drum. (See page 439 for how to
safely bury sharps waste.)
A Community Guide to Environmental Health 2012