Household sharps collection sites

In Minnesota, it is up to each pharmacy, healthcare facility, city, and county to decide whether they want to collect household sharps from citizens. Many counties offer free or low-cost household sharps collection sites. Contact your local county solid waste office or Scott County's household hazardous waste facility to find out if they collect household sharps for proper disposal. Most healthcare facilities do not accept household sharps from patients, however, a few pharmacies in Minnesota do.

Visit http://safeneedledisposal.org/ to locate Minnesota household sharps collection sites.

• Do not bring household sharps to a Take It to the Box household medication dropbox at a pharmacy or law enforcement stations.

• Dispose of prefilled syringes, such as EpiPenTM or NarcanTM injectors, with your household sharps.

• If your sharps container does not have a tight screw-on lid, use strong tape, such as duct tape, to secure the lid and any openings.

For other disposal tips, please reference disposal options for needles and syringes. 

The Scott County Hazardous Waste Site:

• CAN take sharps in approved sharps containers only.
• Does NOT take medications of any kind.
• CAN take USED EpiPens - No Medication.

Additional disposal option: 

If you cannot get to a household sharps collection site, you may legally dispose of your sharps, needles, or syringes, into a empty plastic detergent bottle with a screw on lid.  Label the bottle “Do not recycle: Household Sharps”, secure the lid with tape, and place the labeled and secured container in your garbage bin.

For other disposal tips, please reference Disposal options for needles and syringes.

Never place loose sharps into your trash or recycling!