Sherwood Senior Center adds accessible, safe sharps drop box

SHERWOOD, Ore. — Sherwood’s residents can now dispose of used medical waste in a safe manner.

The Marjorie Stewart Senior Community Center is now home to an accessible sharps box where locals can drop off their used needles, as of late June.

“We have many people in our community who have a medically necessitated use of sharps, whether we're talking diabetic lances or insulin syringes, allergy medication, and more,” said Maiya Martin Burbank, manager of the senior center. “With the rise of the GLP-1 injectables, sharps usage has increased.”

Martin Burbank said the City reached out to ask if the senior center would be open to hosting a sharps box, and she leaped at the chance.

“Anyone who has need can use it,” Martin Burbank said. “We worked specifically to make it accessible so that one could drive up to it and access the disposal drawer from a car window.”

She said the community has seen a disappearance in the ability to dispose of these used needles in a healthy, responsible manner.

“At the center, we regularly field questions from center participants, their families, and community members on if we had any ideas on disposal,” Martin Burbank said. “We've heard of people not being able to find ways to dispose of them and either throwing them in their trash or just have been storing them in their homes, hoping to find a safe way to dispose of them.”

Trash can pick-up is not set up for medical waste disposal because sometimes, debris misses the truck and gets left on the street. Used needles on the ground are especially dangerous, because being pricked accidentally from an improperly disposed sharp can lead to various types of infection and possible transmission of bloodborne pathogens.

“Safe sharp disposal is important so that the materials used are handled in a safe manner, not causing potential accidental harm to disposal workers,” Martin Burbank said. “It helps the community, including our older adult participants, to be able to handle this equipment safely, accessibly, and freely. The current system of disposal can be cost-prohibitive and difficult to access.”

The new box is for all sharps, or medical waste that comes in contact with bodily fluids, such as lancets, syringes, auto-injectors like EpiPen or GLP1 injectors, and infusion sets.

“People can pour them straight in or they can also put their quart-sized sharps containers in the collection box,” Martin Burbank said. “The sharps or sharps containers go in a disposal drawer at the top section of the box. Place your items in the bin and put the handle back up, this action will tip your materials into the bin.”

The safe sharps pick-up is also made to handle medical waste disposal in a secure process, so that sharp implements do not fall out and potentially cause harm to community members, she said.

According to Martin Burbank, the community and center members have been very thankful for the sharps box, which has seen heavy use already due to people finally being able to dispose of materials they have been storing over time, due to lack of previous disposal access.

“People have shared how relieved they are to have this service so accessible and available to them,” Martin Burbank said.

She said very few people have reacted negatively, and these comments largely come from those who are not connected to people who need this resource for medical reasons. She said they were largely receptive to the information when they understood its purpose.

The sharps box is available Mondays through Fridays in the Marjorie Stewart Senior Community Center parking lot, 21907 S.W. Sherwood Blvd.