In England it is entirely up to your local council to decide how local residents who use CGMs should disposed of their used CGMs. There is no uniform disposal practice across councils in England, so everyone must check with their own local council what they should do in order to dispose of their used CGMs.
Once a Libre 2 Plus has been put together, the filament inserted under the skin so it is in contact for up to 15 days with human bodily fluids (interstitial fluid and blood), the used CGM becomes 'contaminated' with those bodily fluids. It is obvious that the manufacturers of CGMs do not intend users of their products to be able to readily take apart used CGMs (I shudder to think how long it takes to actually do so and separate the component parts. I for one don't intend to spend time deconstructing these products).
Under current environmental legislation passed and applicable in England, the possibility that an electronic/electrical device that serves a medical purpose (like a CGM) is or may become 'infective' at the end of its use period means that that medical electronic/electrical device is not treated as an electronic/electrical device for disposal purposes, but as infectious clinical waste instead. The 'infectious clinical waste' designation takes precedence over whether the item is electrical/electronic in nature, components, etc in order to minimise risk to the public at large. Consequently, the device shouldn't be disposed of like any non-medical electronic/electrical product unless the parts of the product that are 'infective' can be readily separated from the device and the 'infective-only' parts disposed of as clinical waste.
The manufacturers of CGMs do not design their used products to be readily taken apart by users. Nor is it practical for CGM users to sterilise used CGMs to the standards deployed by the National Health Service or the NHS's authorised sterilisation contractors.
In a hospital setting the NHS treats used CGMs as infectious clinical waste. In a hospital setting the NHS puts used CGMs in a sharps bin (according to NHS protocols, the CGM filament is treated as a 'sharp' in addition to the used CGM being contaminated with human interstitial fluid/blood). However, unlike a significant number of local councils in England, the NHS arranges for sharps bins containing used CGMs to be taken to 'High Temperature Incinerator' (HTI) facilities where all of the NHS's infectious clinical waste is incinerated using such high temperatures that any human bodily contaminates are destroyed.
HTI disposal also eliminates/mitigates the risk of the lithium batteries used in CGMs from exploding.
In order to cut costs, a significant number of local authorities in England won't dispose of their diabetic residents' used CGMs 'properly' by arranging for those CGMs to be disposed of via HTI facilities - despite the fact that all local councils are entitled to take advantage of the disposal arrangements the NHS has in place with HTI facilities.
In England a resident has a duty of care under the Environmental Protection Act 1990 (section 34) to ensure that the resident's household waste (which includes 'at home generated clinical waste') is disposed of by an 'authorised person.'
Retailers who operate used battery recycling bins, electrical retailers operating 'small used electrical products 'take-back schemes' and Household Reuse and Recycling Centres are forbidden from accepting clinical waste (doing so violates the terms of the licences under which such facilities operate). This is to protect the staff working at such facilities and the public at large that visit these facilities.
Most 'savvy' managers operating these facilities who know the rules under which they operate should refuse to accept from the public medical devices (or their constituent component parts), such as CGMs.
