We have become used to sharps bins popping up in gyms and health clubs, in colleges and universities, in some public toilets and dotted around various other hot spots.

Now, a Seattle coffee shop has taken the challenge and put sharps bins in the toilets to protect staff and customers alike.

It’s apparently no secret that Seattle has a huge heroin problem. So what are fast food joints, cafés and coffee shops like Starbucks (aka: one of the city’s many unsafe injection sites) doing to protect their employees when they have to clean up used needles and razorblades in their store’s bathrooms? In the case of Starbucks, corporate officials have busied themselves telling baristas not to push down on bathroom trash to avoid getting poked.

Rather than following the coffee giant’s example, Café Allegro managers did something much more thoughtful: They installed a sharps disposal box in their University District coffee shop’s single-stall bathroom. As a result, Allegro’s baristas are less likely to be pricked while cleaning at work.

Well done, Café Allegro Seattle. This is surely an important step in protecting the health and safety of staff and customers, and others including waste handlers, from sharps injury and the spectre of bloodborne virus infection.