What Are Sharps Bins?
Sharps bins, also known as sharps containers, are used as a temporary solution to store waste materials, particularly contaminated medical instruments such as used needles. The sharps waste container is kept on-site until it can be transported to a disposal facility.
Appropriate waste materials that you can safely dispose of in our sharps bins include syringes, tattoo needles, scalpels, hypodermic needles, insulin pens, piercing guns, pins, knives, staples, razor blades, contaminated plastic, and contaminated glass.
Medical, science, beauty businesses, and some households that use a syringe to inject medicine, use a sharps container to secure and get rid of sharps waste and medicines.
Some of the most common businesses that use sharp bins for disposing of and keeping medical waste secure include GP practices, tattoo studios, chemists, hospitals, dental clinics, nursing homes, pharmacies, veterinary clinics, and laboratories.
The Importance of Sharps Disposal
Contaminated sharps that have been used or have medicine residue on them can be unsafe to people and pets if unsafely disposed of because they can spread infection or cause an injury. This can pose a serious health risk — the most common infections that can spread include Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), Hepatitis B (HBV), and Hepatitis C (HCV).
A sharps bin is essential for medical, science, and beauty waste products, or anyone that uses medicinal products or medical instruments, such as a syringe for health purposes. Healthcare waste is particularly dangerous because you can not always see if it is contaminated with the naked eye.
Given the danger of contaminated waste, the government requires everyone to be compliant with laws and regulations when using a needle bin to secure medical waste in the United Kingdom.
How to Dispose of Sharps Waste Safely
There are two steps that must be followed to ensure that the disposal of broken or contaminated waste products is carried out safely. This includes the storage of waste using the correct sharps box and using the right waste collector.
The small sharps bin must be coloured, with each sharp box having a specific coloured lid to easily identify the type of waste. Once the sharps boxes are full they must be disposed of immediately.
The guidelines for proper disposal are as follows:
- Discard waste directly after use
- Keep the sharps waste bins in a secure place away from children
- Place sharps containers where they are easily reachable
- Make sure bins are labelled to identify its waste stream
- Assemble the sharps container correctly
- Manage bin collection before it overfills
- Inform all relevant personnel of disposal rules
- Display proper disposal instructions
Different Types of Sharps Bins
A yellow sharps bin for waste disposal has lids with a distinct colour to match the storage description of the bin. All colour-coded lids, such as the yellow lid, represents a different waste type that can be disposed of safely to avoid the risk of infection or injury.
Orange Lid Containers
Used for the disposal of non-pharmaceutical and medical sharps waste, such as tattoo needles.
Yellow Lid Containers
Used for the storage of medical sharps waste, such as syringes.
Red Lid Containers
Used for the storage of contaminated sharps waste. This type of waste includes hazardous cytotoxic and cytostatic waste. Cytotoxic and cytostatic medicines are both dangerous because cytotoxic refers to substances that kill human cells and cytostatic refers to substances that promote cell growth.
An example of cytostatic medicines is needles and drips used for chemotherapy in cancer patients.
Purple Lid Containers
Used for the disposal of anatomical waste, such as blood bags.
Blue Lid Containers
Used for Covid-19 sharps waste, most commonly for the storage of PPE waste and expired pharmaceuticals.
Get in touch with our packaging experts today to find the perfect sharps bin for your needs!