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Disposal of Lancets & test strips

MikePea

MikePea

Well-Known Member
Messages
160
Type of diabetes
Treatment type
Tablets (oral)
Dislikes
Garlic
What ways should we officially dispose of our used lancets and test strips.?
 
A sharps container. Not sure where to get them as I just throw them in the garbage. Ooops
 
Lancets can go in a sharps bin, if they are concealed in a drum like the Fastclix used by Accu-Chek then they can go in with the household rubbish, likewise with test strips.
 
noblehead said:
Lancets can go in a sharps bin, if they are concealed in a drum like the Fastclix used by Accu-Chek then they can go in with the household rubbish, likewise with test strips.
Click to expand...
Officially:
http://www.nhs.uk/chq/Pages/2421.aspx
My sharps bin has lasted me a year, and it is nowhere near full. Was on scrip, so I can return it to GP practice for replacement or emptying.
 
Test strips = normal bin

Lancets = sharps box.

You should be able to get information on where to get a sharps box by calling your council's waste division, if you can't just get it on prescription.

If you don't have a sharps box, at least make sure you cap the used lancets & put them in an empty plastic bottle and screw the lid on so your poor bin man won't get a needle stick and have to be terrified of having caught some disease.
 
I put both in the bin as can,t get a sharps bin on prescription. I placed the lancet sharp end in the cap and put in the bin
 
ally1 said:
I put both in the bin as can,t get a sharps bin on prescription. I placed the lancet sharp end in the cap and put in the bin
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I used to do this, but one day I slipped when replacing the cap, and speared myself. It was a deep wound (not a little prick) and being on blood thinners, it became messy very quickly. I have also speared myself when putting a lancet into the pigsticker gadget, but that was at least uncontaminated at that stage.
 
ally1 said:
I put both in the bin as can,t get a sharps bin on prescription. I placed the lancet sharp end in the cap and put in the bin
Click to expand...

As @catapillar , has suggested above, you ought to be able to get a sharps bin from your local council. The council are not going to phone your doc' and ask if you get lancets on scrip.

Have you tried asking them?
 
I have bins on prescription and council come and take it away. Gp practice won't take them as too many patients.
 
Oldvatr said:
I used to do this, but one day I slipped when replacing the cap, and speared myself. It was a deep wound (not a little prick) and being on blood thinners, it became messy very quickly. I have also speared myself when putting a lancet into the pigsticker gadget, but that was at least uncontaminated at that stage.
Click to expand...
The most common (at least in the US) has a little disk as the cap. That can be set flat on a surface and the lancet pushed into it to avoid the "oops" factor.
 
Sharps bin for both as more blood contamination on strips than on needles and if not on script ebay or amazon
 
borderter said:
Sharps bin for both as more blood contamination on strips than on needles and if not on script ebay or amazon
Click to expand...

You don't have to put your used test strips in a sharps box - they, obviously, have blood on them, but in a bin there is minimal risk of anyone being "contaminated" by them. Apologies for being crude, but there is a lot more blood on my used sanitary products & it's perfectly fine for them to go in a normal bin.

I think the companies that collect the sharps boxes charge by the box, so if you are filling up your sharps box with things that don't need to be in there you are increasing the bill for your council. Every little helps and all that :)
 
While a student nurse we were taught not to resheath needles because of the needle stick injury risk! There is no safe way to resheath a needle, even putting it into a flat disk doesn't really make it safe. Please always use a sharps bin. I'm not sure whether any chemists will accept them if they are not prescribed, however only certain chemists will accept full sharps bins because of disposal contracts etc.
 
P.s I think you are ok to resheath your own needles if it was used on someone else there is a risk of infection or coming into contact with hep c hiv ect xxx
 
When I first started testing I was given a sharps box by my GP on repeat and take full one into surgery for them to dispose of
 
I managed to cut my self on an oxo cube the other day so nothing is impossible well it was the foil rapper but test strips have an edge and so you can cut your self on one they all go in my sharps bin with the used lancets its safer that way.
 
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