What can be disposed of in a sharps bin?

Items that can be placed in a sharps bin include: needles, scalpels, glass Pasteur pipettes, slides, disposable microtome blades, coverslips, small non-contaminated broken glass bottles, and any other small sharp objects contaminated with biological waste.   

Safe usage of sharps bins

• Take responsibility for your sharps waste.
• Select the appropriate size of bin.
• Using a lab-safe pen, write the name of the research group and the date the bin came into use.
• Co-locate the bin to your area of work – carry the sharps bin, not the sharp!
• When carrying the sharps bin or when it's not in use, engage the temporary closure feature.
• Do not overfill the sharps bin.
• Seal the bin, add the date it was sealed for disposal to the label, and dispose of it in a yellow wheelie bin.
• Follow good Occupational Hygiene and Best Practice guidelines: dispose of the bin every 3 months, regardless of whether it is full.   

The Faculty is in the process of changing the broken glass disposal route. In the meantime please contact your Technical Operations Manager.

Stopford Building

For any non-contaminated glass, there is a glass waste bin located in the Stopford loading bay. If laboratories collect their non-contaminated glass in an appropriate receptacle, then transport it to the green recycled glass wheelie bin in the loading bay, it can be disposed of in there. It is important to note that the glassware must be clean (and any labels defaced).

Uncontaminated Pyrex can be put in the glass wheelie bins as the material is crushed and used in construction materials rather than being recycled into new products.

Biomedical Corridor

Deposit non-contaminated glass in the hard blue plastic bins that are collected by Assistant Technicians.

• If glass is contaminated with a hazardous chemical the incident must be treated as a hazardous chemical spill.
• It is essential you follow the guidance in the COSHH risk assessment to safely clean up the contaminated glass.
• Further information about safely cleaning up hazardous spills and location of the spill kits can be found on the hazardous spills web pages.
• Remember you will need to wear cut-resistant gloves under the chemical resistant gloves.
• In all instances place the broken glass and the clean-up materials in a robust chemical-spills container and treated as hazardous waste.

If in any doubt evacuate the lab and contact your Principle Investigator, line manager and or local safety adviser for advice on how to proceed.

• If there is an associated biological spill, refer to your BioCOSHH for decontamination procedures.
• Broken glass can then be placed in a yellow sharps bin, locked and placed in the yellow biohazard bins.