Sheri Bowyer/Special to the Sun

Many of you may not care about needles, syringes or lancets (also known as sharps) or even wonder how they are handled once used. However, sharps are widely used and their waste is a huge issue, especially for the Kern River Valley community.

The number of people who use sharps for themselves or their pets for medical treatment may surprise you. In fact, estimates state that one in every 12 households in the United States is using sharps. The big question is what happens to used sharps, and should we as a community be concerned? When sharps are used in a home setting they are referred to as home-generated sharps. Once used, sharps become medical waste, and are very dangerous as they may spread pathogens and infectious diseases such as HIV/AIDS, hepatitis, tetanus, and syphilis.

In 2008, California passed a State law (section 118286 of the California Health and Safety Code) making it illegal to dispose of home-generated sharps waste in the trash or recycling containers, and requires all sharps waste to be transported to a collection center in an approved sharps container. Kern County has three household hazardous waste drop-off locations, in Bakersfield, Ridgecrest and Mojave. Unfortunately, due to reasons like the inconvenience of the Kern County hazardous waste locations and the lack of transportation, many of our neighbors do not have reasonable options for their sharps waste and ultimately toss their used sharps into the regular trash, putting all of us at risk of needle sticks and the possibility of contracting a disease.

Fortunately, the Kern River Chamber of Commerce along with Thomas Refuse Service understands our Valley’s desperate need for a safe and convenient option for home-generated sharps disposal and is kicking off a new program called the Kern River Valley (KRV) Safe Sharps Disposal Program. This month, a kiosk will be placed in front of four local businesses, Thomas Refuse Service, Isabella Supermarket, Mt. Mesa Market, and The Drug Store. These kiosks will be available for our community to safely and properly dispose their home-generated sharps waste, thus reducing the incidences of used sharps in the regular trash.

Using the sharps kiosks is easy and simply requires the home generated sharps waste to be put into a sharps container no larger than two quarts and placing them into any of the four kiosks. The kiosk system is very secure and works like a bank deposit box allowing you to insert the sharps container, but not allowing you to reach inside the kiosk and have access to the kiosk’s contents.

The sharps kiosks are only for the use of home-generated sharps waste,therefore any commercial use is forbidden by the program. If you would like to learn more about the KRV Safe Sharps Disposal Program, please contact Sheri at sheri@thomasrefuse.us or call 760-379-2618.