Did you know that syringes, needles, and anything that comes in contact with bodily fluids is not recyclable?
We know what you’re thinking… DUH! But sadly we continue to see these things at our facility on a daily basis.
There’s no excuse to dump medical waste in a recycling container. Team members at recycling facilities like Millennium Recycling in Sioux Falls hand sort items that cannot be automatically sorted out by the equipment. You guessed it – medical waste like tubing, catheter bags, iv’s, and syringes are all non-recyclables that the equipment does not recognize.
This means our team members have to physically pull these materials out by hand. Think about that… these tubes, bags, lancets, syringes and needles are coming from homes who are using them to treat serious or chronic conditions like diabetes, cancer, allergies or arthritis to name just a few. In an era where knowledge of blood-borne pathogens is ever-present, the decision to toss these items in the recycling stream is a hard one to understand.
So tell your kids! Tell your husband! Tell your Grandma and your uncle! Spread the word that these are NOT RECYCLABLE! And YES, people touch that!!