Medical Sharps Disposal

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​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​The City of Phoenix Needs Your Help to Keep Our Community Safe! ​

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The City of Phoenix serves 1.8 million people, and collects trash and recycling from more than 410,000 households. When improperly disposed medical sharps get into the recycling stream, they put personnel health and safety at risk and affect the operations and efficiency of machinery within our Materials Recovery Facilities (MRFs), where recyclables are sorted. Medical sharps should never be recycled. Read more about the proper way to dispose of them.​


Department Partnerships

​The City of Phoenix Office of Public Health and Public Works Department​ are partnering in promoting safe methods for medical waste and sharps disposal​ to reduce the risk of injury to city and county staff and residents.  ​

Needles & Sharps

What Are Medical Sharps? Discarded sharps used in animal or human patient care, medical research, or clinical laboratories. This includes hypodermic needles; syringes; pipettes; scalpel blades; blood vials; needles attached to tubing; broken and unbroken glassware; and slides and coverslips.​ 

How to Properly Dispose of Needles, Syringes and More

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Additional Safety Recommendations

  • Store in a safe place where it does not need to be moved often to protect children, pets and guests

  • Do not use a glass container

  • Never put loose needles or medical sharps in any sort of recycling container ​

  • Always safely dispose of needles

  • Never flush needles or syringes down the toilet​​