Clinical waste

Clinical waste is any waste that poses a threat of infection to humans and includes the following:  

• Human tissue
• Blood and other bodily fluids
• Swabs and dressings
• Syringes, needles or other sharp instruments

Clinical waste collections will be arranged through your doctor, district nurse or hospital, either as a one off or a regular weekly collection. Please note: Collection time is from 6am.

Please do not place clinical waste in your normal domestic refuse container.

If you use incontinence pads, these can be double bagged and placed in with your normal domestic refuse.

How to arrange for the regular disposal of needles

If you require a needle collection, your doctor will give you a prescription for a sharps box.

Residents can use an online form to book a sharps collection and boxes should be made available from 6am from a designated place – usually the front of the property (collections cannot be made from inside a property, porch or stairwell).

Book a sharps box collection

Unused needles that need to be collected should be placed in the sharps box; we cannot take needles that are not in a box even if they are unused. Sharps boxes cannot be brought to the council offices.

Collections take place on a Wednesday. Requests received before 4pm on the Tuesday will be collected the next day. Requests received after this will be collected the following week on the Wednesday.

Please note: The cut-off for clinical waste bookings over the Christmas period will be 12pm on Tuesday, 24 December and Tuesday, 31 December.

We will only collect a minimum of five boxes of sharps unless:

• The customer has finished the course of treatment, or
• There will not be any further collections from the property, or
• The customer only asks for an ad hoc collection every one to two months (ie, they do not request a collection on a weekly basis)