Macon Co. Health Dept. introduces free SHARPS boxes

DECATUR, Ill. (WAND) - If you use injectables as a form of medication or for any other reason, it can be hard to know how to dispose of your used needles.

Now, the Macon County Health Department is taking the guessing out of it.

"We've always received calls from community members wanting to know what to do with their SHARPS containers" Amber Holthaus, Director of Clinical Nursing Services at MCHD, said. "They've called their pharmacies and get no direction. They're not provided with a SHARPS container so they don't know what to do."

All you have to do is stop by the Macon County Health Department building at 1221 E. Condit St. in Decatur.

There, you can pick up two SHARPS boxes for free. Once they're full, there is a disposal box you can drop them in at the building.

"We feel like if the community members have a place to put them and have ease of access of receiving these SHARPS containers that people will comply and clean everything up," Holthaus said.

Needles, syringes, epi and insulin pens are among what you can put into a SHARPS box.

"It doesn't really matter what it is," Holthaus said. "If it's an injectable, it needs to go in a SHARPS container, so we feel like this is a much safer way of disposing of those kinds of medications."

The containers and disposal box were funded through a grant from the EPA.

The boxes are available to be picked up now.