TITLE
WITHDRAWN
Recommendation to respectfully recommend that the City of Long Beach request of the California Integrated Waste Management Board's authority to continue to allow its residents to dispose of household sharps waste. In doing so, this would allow Long Beach residents to dispose of household sharps in the same manner as they had prior to the new law (SB 1305 Medical Waste Management Act) with the assurance that such waste is not dumped in a landfill but incinerated at high temperatures; and
In the interim of receiving approval by California Integrated Waste Management Board to allow continued disposal in household trash, the City of Long Beach needs to distribute information through its Refuse Collection Services as to how and where residents can dispose of their needles, syringes and other sharps.
DISCUSSION
SB 1305, which went into effect on September 1, 2008. This new law, which is part of the California Health and Safety Code's Medical Waste Management Act, prohibits household sharps waste (hypodermic needles, lancets, pen needles) from being placed in the regular trash. No funding has been provided for the implementation of the law.
The California Integrated Waste Management Board is responsible to facilitate and oversee the implementation of the new law concerning disposal of home used hazardous sharps. The new law requires residents to dispose of these items in any of the following ways:
· Household hazardous waste collection sites
· Scheduled household hazardous waste round up events (two per year in Long Beach)
· Medical waste mail-back service
· Physicians, hospitals, and other medical care providers that are willing to take back sharps from clients.
There are no collections sites in the City of Long Beach, thus making it very difficult for our residents to safely dispose of their sharps waste in a manner that does not violate current law. The City's Refuse Department indicates that it will take more than two years to be able to esta...
Click here for full text