Sharps injury is a not uncommon problem for domestic waste handlers, who face injury from metal wood, plastic and glass. Most serious is a sharps injury involving a used needle, but the high risks of bacterial contamination of items from waste and thereby of the wound itself makes serious sepsis a common consequence of these sometimes severe infections.

In the US, sharps management from domestic users is generally not as advanced as in the UK. Most cities provide limited collection facilities, with users needing to take their sharps to a local police or fire station for disposal: competitive private medicine and an underfunded public service ensures that takeback of sharps by family physicians or hospitals is almost unknown. Though there is much variation across and between individual states, sharps bins for domestic producers are a rarity and improvisation is a way of life.

US waste collections staff have produced a short film, on YouTube, to show the risks they face and to encourage waste producers to take care with their sharps

Let’s hope that their waste producers/customers will take heed, to reduce these sometimes devastating accidents and improve the health, safety and welfare of waste handlers.