Governor Schwarzenegger Signs Safe Needle Disposal Bill
SACRAMENTO, CA, July 14, 2006 - On July 12, Governor Schwarzenegger signed SB 1305 by Senator Liz Figueroa (D-Sunol, CA) The bill prohibits the placement of home-generated needles and other sharps in solid waste and recycling containers. SB 1305, which was sponsored by the Alameda County Sharps Coalition and Waste Management, received broad support from local governments, diabetes educators, environmental groups, labor organizations and the solid waste industry. California will become one of the first states in the nation to ban sharps waste from the residential waste stream.
"The Alameda Sharps Coalition is thrilled that Senator Figueroa authored this bill," said County Supervisor Keith Carson. "In Alameda County alone we have almost 30,000 diabetics using needles to administer their medicine. Most used needles end up in the solid waste system, where they pose a grave health risk to anyone who encounters them. SB 1305 allows counties such as ours to effectively remove needles from the waste stream."
According to the Coalition for Safe Community Needle Disposal, at least 3 billion injections occur yearly outside of health care settings, and most of the needles end up discarded in household trash and community waste bins.
Effective September 1, 2008, SB 1305 will close a major loophole in California's Medical Waste Act by requiring home-generated sharps waste to be transported only in approved sharps containers and to be managed only at state approved locations. California residents will no longer be allowed to dispose of used needles and other sharps waste in solid waste and recycling containers.
According to Dr. Ben Hoffman, "Needle sticks are a major concern for the recycling and solid waste industry. Waste Management has made a commitment to do everything we can to protect our employees by getting sharps waste out of the solid waste stream."
The bill encourages state agencies, local governments, and industry to work cooperatively to publicize sites that are authorized to accept sharps waste and to implement convenient mail-back programs that use containers approved by the U.S. Postal Service.
