Authority wants sellers to take back used needles

First it was batteries, and now the authority is taking aim at hypodermic needles, which were banned from normal disposal methods in 2008.

“Needles are really the scariest product we know of,” said authority director Kevin Hendrick. “If not handled correctly they end up in the garbage, and sometimes in garbage collectors. There’s nothing more scary than getting poked by a used needle.”

Hendrick feels that part of the problem is a lack of public education on proper needle disposal.

“They have to be inside one of those red plastic sharps containers,” Hendrick said. “The way it is right now, needles have to be put in one of those sharps containers, and then delivered to the Transfer Station. They can’t be thrown in the trash even in a sharps container.”

The authority is asking for retailers of hypodermic needles and lancets to provide proper disposal receptacles and take-back services.

Product stewardship refers to efforts to shift the responsibility for paying for the disposal of hazardous materials from the general public to the product manufacturers and consumers.

“The way it works right now isn’t fair,” California Product Stewardship Council Director Heidi Sanborn said recently. “Why should I, as a general taxpayer, pay to dispose of my neighbor’s giant big screen TV? If product stewardship works correctly, the consumer pays for the product’s end of life in the purchase price.”

The current effort at removing needles from the waste stream is modeled on the authority’s recent battery return program, where businesses that sell both rechargeable and non-rechargeable batteries supply take-back services for the battery’s recycling.

“It’s been going very well,” Hendrick said. “We’re not sure exactly what the numbers are, but we are in the process of crunching them.”

The needle return program is just in the outreach phase, Hendrick said, and according to a staff report at a recent authority meeting the outreach effort needs to be ramped up.

“We sent out 19 letters,” Hendrick said. “We received back only seven replies.”

Of those replies, three businesses said that they didn’t sell needles, but the other four indicated that they would be interested in being part of a needle take-back program, Hendrick said.

The businesses and organizations that were interested were Walgreens, Wal-Mart, All Creatures Great and Small Animal Hospital and the United Indian Health Clinic.

“We feel that those businesses that responded need to be recognized for their proactive approach to the issue,” said Hendrick. “But we also realize the need for further outreach.”

At a Wednesday night board meeting, the board voted to continue the outreach efforts.

“We are going to be calling and even visiting businesses in person,” Hendrick said. “If necessary we do have the ability to come up with an ordinance that forces businesses to comply, but we would prefer it to be entirely voluntary.”