Oklahoma launches sharps take-back program

The Choctaw Nation, Indian Health Services and New Jersey-based Covanta Environmental Solutions have partnered with the Product Stewardship Institute (PSI), a policy advocate and consulting nonprofit, to expand sharps take-back infrastructure in Oklahoma.

Through the program, participating health clinics in eight areas will provide sharps users with easy-to-use containers that allow them to drop off or mail in their used sharps. More than 100,000 residents in Oklahoma are prescribed self-injecting medications, generating as many as 60 million needles per year. 

When needles are flushed or trashed, they pose health and safety risks to residents, sanitation workers, sewage treatment plant operators, waste management personnel and hospitality workers. According to a 2018 report from the Environmental Research and Education Foundation and the Solid Waste Association of North America, 53 percent of materials recovery facilities observed needles in household waste at least weekly, and over half reported one or more needle-stick injury in 2016.

“The implementation of a sharps mail-back program in Oklahoma is a big step forward in helping remove this material from households,” says Brad Wright, vice president and general manager of healthcare solutions at Covanta. “This grant will ensure that the public will have access to disposal containers which will then be managed and processed in the most sustainable manner possible.”  

This collection program is informed by PSI’s how-to guide: “Establishing Community Medical Sharps Programs: A Guide for Municipalities, Pharmacies, Health Clinics, and Nonprofits in Oklahoma.” The guide, created with grant funding from the state’s Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ), provides step-by-step support for municipalities establishing medical sharps collection programs for residents and will be expanded with lessons learned from the pilot collection programs, PSI says.

Research for the guide highlighted the lack of infrastructure for medical sharps collection and led to this pilot program.  

“In addition to the public health and environmental risks, medical sharps that are thrown in the trash can pose a safety hazard to sanitation workers,” says Patrick Riley, environmental programs manager for solid waste and sustainability at the Oklahoma DEQ. “We know that safe collection sites are needed, and this program will demonstrate exactly how they can be operated.” 

In 2021, the Oklahoma State Legislature legalized privately funded programs to capture used sharps. Some hospitals and medical clinics now accept sharps from their patients, as do a limited number of businesses, following OSHA regulations. In addition, some cities have developed occasional, annual or ongoing sharps take-back events

Oklahoma's new program is part of a nationwide push for health care-related extended producer responsibility programs and legislation. In April, Illinois became the eighth U.S. state–with Maine, Oregon, Massachusetts, Washington, New York, Vermont and California–to enact an EPR law that requires drug manufacturers to pay for and run a statewide take-back program.