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Oregon Insulin Syringe Disposal Laws

Disposal of all syringes, whether used or unused, falls under the law governing the disposal of infectious waste. The law seeks to protect human health and the environment. Medical waste can be infectious, but not all medical waste is, and not all infectious waste has a medical origin. Oregon law assigns infectious waste to four categories: pathological waste; biological waste; cultures and stocks; and sharps. Syringes occupy the sharps category, says the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality.

  1. Responsibility

    • Generators of sharps infectious waste — from large hospitals to private individuals who use insulin syringes — bear the responsibility to educate themselves about the law and correct procedures for disposing of their sharps waste. The four Oregon state agencies responsible for regulating infectious waste disposal, including sharps, are the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ), the Oregon Department of Health Services (DHS), Oregon OSHA, and the Oregon Department of Transportation.

    Disposal Container

    • The syringes you want to dispose of must be in either an official sharps container or a leak-proof, rigid, puncture-resistant container that you can close tightly. For example, you can use red laundry detergent bottles as your disposal containers. To secure the top tightly so the contents will not come out, use duct tape, the Oregon agencies say. In all cases, the container must me clearly marked as a sharps container.

    Disposal

    • The disposal procedure will depend on where you live in Oregon. Metro Portland residents can bring their full sharps containers to a Metro hazardous waste facility, and each time you drop off a full container, they will give you a new one. If you are a resident of Clackamas or Washington counties, contact Allied Waste Bio-Med of Oregon for container disposal procedures. For residents of Multnomah country, Stericycle provides collection and mail-in services. For other options, check with your garbage hauler to see if they will collect your sharps container for a fee, or contact your local pharmacy or your landfill operator to see if they have a collection program.

    Use Common Sense

    • Do not throw your syringes or sharps container in with regular household trash.

      Do not store your used syringes in a non-sharps-approved container.

      Do not store your syringes where children can access them.

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