You should not put used needles or other sharps into containers or into your household waste, recycling or any other general rubbish bin. Used medical sharps can cause injuries and may carry blood-borne viruses that can be passed on to other people.

Medical sharps include syringes, needles and lancets (from finger-pricking devices) used to manage various medical conditions such as diabetes.

If you use medical sharps at home, you should place them into a sealed sharps box, obtained from a GP or pharmacy, which may be returned to a GP surgery once full for safe disposal. If you are unable to transport your sharps box to a surgery, you can arrange a collection from us.

Arrange a medical sharps collection

Any illegal drug-related sharps should be taken to a pharmacy offering a needle exchange service. 

This service is for residents only. Businesses (including residential care homes) require a chargeable clinical waste collection service. We do not operate a clinical waste collection service. There are several alternative companies that can offer this service. It is your responsibility to ensure that a registered carrier is used for this type of waste, the Environment Agency website has a public register of all companies who are registered to remove this waste.