Sharps...

[Cozzer]

Rang my local chemist...
"Do you have a sharps box, please?"
"Do you have some sharps?"
The sarcastic side of me wanted to say "No, of course not. I'm simply asking for something to do and kill some time..."
"Yes. Scalpel blades, some double-sided razor blades and a few Maped mount cutter blades..."
"No, we don't. But your GP will..."
The response was along the lines of "Computer says no...."

Rang the GP.
Yes, they have a sharps box. No, I can't have use of it. It's only for the medical staff who work there.
"Right...any idea what I'm supposed to do with them?"
"You could try the local chemist..."
"Have done. They suggested you..."
"Well, if you place them in your own sharps box, we could take them for you...as long as your box fits inside ours...."
"Right....what size is yours?"
"I've no idea. I've never actually seen it or use it, because I'm just the receptionist and don't use anything medical...."

 

[Sideways]

I have two plastic tubes for used scalpel blades
"Sharps" have lost their new edge but have life left for rough jobs
"Blunts" will stick you but are otherwise trashed.

I think my dilemma will be like yours. Chemists don't have a box any more and the surgery is so agonisingly bureaucratic over everything, so I wouldn't waste my breath or sanity.

 

[Cozzer]

I have two plastic tubes for used scalpel blades
"Sharps" have lost their new edge but have life left for rough jobs
"Blunts" will stick you but are otherwise trashed.

I think my dilemma will be like yours. Chemists don't have a box any more and the surgery is so agonisingly bureaucratic over everything, so I wouldn't waste my breath or sanity.

Indeed. Sanity...
I keep hearing myself saying that the world's gone mad!
In another post on here I wrote about witnessing some flytippers, active on Christmas Eve evening.
We're told "do this, do that", but there was no point in trying anybody on the Council line, so chose 101 instead.
The cops couldn't wait to say that it was "nothing to do with them", until I told them that one of the tippers had dropped his mobile before they shot off.
Slight change of attitude, and the phone was indeed collected between Xmas and New Year.
The cops couldn't "open" the phone. The council refuge boys wouldn't be able to either. It would "break the law"...
I suggested that they could wander around any marketplace and find someone to unlock it for a "fiver"....no, they couldn't do that.

I chased progress last week, a month after the event.
The council people still hadn't got the phone. They'd been told it was passworded, but nobody had actually tried. There was a phone number and email address of someone sharpied on the phone cover...they weren't aware of that. All the villain's contacts, good or bad, lay within. For all they and I know, maybe the phone just needs charging, and all might be revealed. This is a whole month after the offence....

For all I know, the **** might have flytipped a dozen times since losing his phone...but "we" haven't the right to inspect his phone because it would be "against the law".

But.... don't forget, if you see anything suspicious, report it.
Just don't expect anything to be actually done....

 

[Cabinetman]

I’ve always just stuck a bit of tape over the edge and put them in metal recycling. Even taped up I wouldn’t just put them in a waste bag.

 

[Phil Craddock]

Rang my local chemist...
"Do you have a sharps box, please?"
"Do you have some sharps?"
The sarcastic side of me wanted to say "No, of course not. I'm simply asking for something to do and kill some time..."
"Yes. Scalpel blades, some double-sided razor blades and a few Maped mount cutter blades..."
"No, we don't. But your GP will..."
The response was along the lines of "Computer says no...."

Rang the GP.
Yes, they have a sharps box. No, I can't have use of it. It's only for the medical staff who work there.
"Right...any idea what I'm supposed to do with them?"
"You could try the local chemist..."
"Have done. They suggested you..."
"Well, if you place them in your own sharps box, we could take them for you...as long as your box fits inside ours...."
"Right....what size is yours?"
"I've no idea. I've never actually seen it or use it, because I'm just the receptionist and don't use anything medical...."

I get mine from Boots but I agree that some chemists are not interested in selling them.

I'm diabetic and inject every day, so I have a lot of disposable needles to get rid of but the chemist who supplies these needles and my insulin will not provide a sharps box!

 

[Blackswanwood]

Double sided razor blades, workshop scalpel blades, Stanley knife blades etc just go in a tin, when full it goes in the metal recycling and start a new tin. Not sure there is any need to involve a chemist or GP with non-clinical sharp waste.

 

[Cozzer]

Double sided razor blades, workshop scalpel blades, Stanley knife blades etc just go in a tin, when full it goes in the metal recycling and start a new tin. Not sure there is any need to involve a chemist or GP with non-clinical sharp waste.

You have a metal recycling bin?

Or are you suggesting I find a scrap yard who'll take them?

 

[Blackswanwood]

You have a metal recycling bin?

Or are you suggesting I find a scrap yard who'll take them?

We do have a council supplied recycling bin for metal cans etc

The council tip (or household waste and recycling centre if you are posh!) has a skip for waste metal.

 

[Jacob]

You have a metal recycling bin?

.

 

[Chief Sawdust Maker]

Empty 500ml water bottle cut a slit in the neck fill with blades when full tape over then as Blackswanwood says drop in your green bin

 

[Oldman]

My sharps bin comes via the local council, I call them when its full and they drop me an exchange one.

 

[Cozzer]

Empty 500ml water bottle cut a slit in the neck fill with blades when full tape over then as Blackswanwood says drop in your green bin

I'd be shot, putting anything like that in our green bin!
I've just re-checked the local reg's for what goes in which bin, and the only reference to anything metal is food and drinks cans...but empty...in the "burgundy"(!) bin.
Yes, I could seal one, but I still don't like the thought of these still sharp (but too blunt for my purposes) jobs floating around.
Looks like it's a call to the Council to see what's suggested.


Thanks all....

 

[whatknot]

Slightly off at a tangent but my wife is a diabetic so needs a sharps bin, which started off with a small one but soon filled, special number on the bin to call (I think it was Biffa) can you collect? yes they said leave it out and they will collect it on a certain day, any time I asked? No they could not give a time just leave it out all day.
I said I can't leave it out as there are school children passing by every day so I am not prepared to leave it outside. Can't they knock the door? No they can't do that. I asked if I could drop it off? No I can't do that.
After further fruitless attempts to get it collected I gave up and decided to save it until the next one was filled.
Having filled the second sharps bin I tried again, collection day arranged, same conversation, can I leave it out? No etc, but this time she arranged for the driver to knock, problem solved.
Sharps bins are ordered on prescription from the doctor, who passes it to the chemist to order and dispense, I stood in the chemist waiting to be served, 40 minutes from entering to leaving for a plastic sharps bin, someone is making a lot of money out of things like this from the NHS.

For the OP, if you just want a sharps bin, they are sold on ebay & Amazon

The 1 litre on Amazon at £5.55 would keep you going for a long time for stanley blades etc

 

[Cozzer]

Thought I'd cracked it for a minute!
A glass jar was suggested by the council rep, which can then be thrown in the burgundy bin.
But....
The Nescafe jar has a plastic top....which can't be in said bin.
Incidentally, he added, you can't put broken glass in the burgundy job, so if the coffee jar happens to smash as you drop it in, you have to fish the bits out and place them in the black bin.

There's 10 minutes of my life I'll not get back!

 

[deema]

Just toss them in the recycling bin along with all the other sharp edged tin cans. Geez some people really over think stuff……or does everyone apart from me blunt tin can edges.

You can of course resharpen them, or grind the edge so it won’t hurt a babies bottom. I prefer to use the batshitcrazy sharp method of sharpening disposable blades,

 

[Blackswanwood]

There's 10 minutes of my life I'll not get back!

I bet the person you spoke to at the council is thinking the same thing

 

[Amplidyne]

I bet the person you spoke to at the council is thinking the same thing

Yeah, but the person at the council was getting paid for it. . .

 

[niemeyjt]

Anyone who has regular prescriptions - use one of the online pharmacies - especially the ones that also sell these weight loss jabs.

The one I use asks if I need a sharps bin - and will include one FOC.

Of course, it doesn't sort out the disposal of a full one.