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DISPOSAL OF PREFILLED PENS

S

stoney

Well-Known Member
Messages
321
Location
South Wales
Type of diabetes
Parent
Treatment type
Pump
Hi Everyone

Just wondered what other people do to dispose of pre-filled insulin pens.

In the past James has always used cartridges which were easily put in the Sharps Box which we took to clinic for disposal. This is no longer allowed now and our Sharps box is collected by the local council and a new one left . We were told by the DSN to dispose of them in the Sharps box but the whole pens are taking up a lot of room. What do others do :?:
 
I was told by my DSN that completely empty disposable pens could be put in with your plastic recycling so I've been doing that.
 
When my daughter had pre-filled pens for a few months i just put them in the normal bin, no idea if that is right or not but they would not have fitted in my sharps box!
 
When i used pre-filled pens i was told they were fine in household rubbish, but if they can be recycled then i'd go for that option!

I can imagine they'd fill a sharps bin very quickly!
 
It's because of the extra material that needs to be disposed of and becuase of extra costs of disposal that I refuse to use prefilled pens - fortunately, the insulins I use are both available as cartridges. Needles can be clipped by Safe Clip divice, leaving just small plastic stub with the bit of needle that goes into cartridge and cartidge to be disposed of in sharps bin.
 
Thanks for all the replies.

As I work for the Local Authority part-time I will check with the Waste Enforcement Team when in work on Wednesday and see if they can be recycled (empty of course) or just put in normal waste.

Thanks again everyone for input :wink:
 
It's the blood that is the 'clinical waste', not the insulin, so you can do what you like with the pens or the cartridges. It's just the needles that need to go in a sharps bin.
 
Hi, my chemists wont accept the sharps bins anymore, and if my GP's wont accept them either WHAT do I do with a full sharps bin needing disposal??? Help. Anna.x :shock:
 
Hi Anna29,

Your local authority (council) is obliged to take your sharps box and give you an empty replacement. I had to get my GP surgery to write to the team and they then wrote to me to arrange collection. Your GP practice should know how to do this.
 
The systems seem to different everywhere. I have to ring the council for them to collect the full ones, but my empties are on repeat prescription and picked up with everything else at the chemists.
 
You can recycle the Novarapid pens by going to their website and ordering a recycling box. They send you two boxes which hold 12 pens in each. When full you just pop the box in a postbox. No charge.
 
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