Household Sharps Disposal at Hazardous Materials Management
Facility
New Way for Boulder County Residents to Safely Dispose of Used
Syringes
Boulder County, Colo. -The Boulder County Resource
Conservation Division is excited to announce a new sharps pilot program that was initiated
within Boulder County from our Zero Waste Grant. The Hazardous Materials
Management Facility (HMMF) is currently accepting sharps from Boulder County,
City and County of Broomfield, and Town of Erie residents free of charge during
normal hours of operation.
Sharps include needles (including insulin or illicit drug), syringes with needles attached, lancets, scalpels, razor blades, and Epi-pens. Packaging for sharps should be either an industry standard, red sharps container or a strong, puncture resistant, leak proof container with screw-on lid. Examples of acceptable household-generated containers that may be used for sharps waste include empty laundry detergent jugs, bleach bottles, or other High Density Polyethylene (HDPE) plastic containers with screw on lids. These containers should be stamped on the bottom with the #2 symbol.
The sharps pilot program began
in May thanks to a Zero Waste Grant Fund for $3,050 from Boulder County
Resource Conservation. Approximately one-third of the grant funding is being
used for sharps disposal while the remainder of the funding is being used
for the pharmaceutical mail-back envelopes program.
The HMMF is open Wed-Sat, 8:30 a.m. – 4 p.m. Residents will need
to provide proof of residency to utilize the program for free. Any
residents outside of our service area will be charged $35.
The Boulder County HMMF has a 40-gallon-limit daily drop off for all hazardous materials.
All bio-hazard waste
collected is processed with a local Colorado company, Colorado Medical Waste,
through an ozone treatment process. Ozone reverts back to oxygen after it
is used, which makes it an ideal molecule for zero-emission oxidation. Waste
volume is reduced by 90% through shredding with zero emissions from the
facility.
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