Proper Disposal of Sharps for Residential Disposal Only

Beginning on September 1, 2008, State law Section 118286 of the California Health and Safety Code makes it illegal to dispose of sharps waste in the trash or recycling containers, and requires that all sharps waste be transported to a collection center in an approved sharps container.

Home-Generated Sharps Waste:

• hypodermic needles,
• pen needles, intravenous needles,
• lancets,
• other devices that are used to penetrate the skin, for the delivery of medications

Your Health Care Provider:
If you belong to a medical health care provider please contact them to find out availability for disposal at their locations. Kaiser Permanente, Mills-Peninsula Hospital, Sequoia Hospital and some private physicians already accept home-generated sharps from their patients.  Additionally, Allied Waste and BlueLine Transfer Station accept home-generated sharps from its residential customers.

San Mateo County Health System Sharps Collection: County-sponsored locations for proper disposal of home-generated syringes and other medical sharps, such as lancets used by those monitoring blood sugar levels. Secured steel disposal bins have been installed at five locations in the county, allowing anyone to drop off their filled, sharps containers as medical waste.

State law requires all syringes and sharps to be in authorized sharps containers.  The county’s disposal bins are designed to accept sharps container up to one gallon in size.

Sharps Disposal Bin: