Dunedin City Council solid waste manager Catherine Irvine said the Southern District Health Board initiative allowing people to drop their needles off in buckets at pharmacies free of charge came as rubbish workers encountered a few medical needles each month.
This presented a clear health risk and the issue came to a head with a big scare earlier this year, when a contractor was pricked, but it turned out to be a rose thorn, Ms Irvine said.
"We have seen cases, where people trying to do the right thing, but not quite getting it, fill up milk bottles [with needles] and then put them in a refuse bag.''
Others put them in their recycling bins.
The council was pleased the DHB had taken up the initiative and about half of pharmacies in Otago had come on board.
Dunedin City Council Waste Minimisation Officer Catherine Gledhill also thanked the DHB.
"We hope it will help reduce injuries from objects such as syringes for our kerbside rubbish collectors and recycling sorters,'' Ms Gledhill said.
The initiative involved patients being issued with special containers so they could safely collect medical items such as syringes and injection devices, known as "sharps''. The full approved containers could be returned to the pharmacy for safe collection and disposal. Unused prescribed medication could also be returned to pharmacies at no charge for safe disposal.
DHB portfolio manager Greg Sheffield said the initiative was motivated by a variety of factors, including concern from the council about the safety of its staff. There was also a legislative requirement for DHBs to provide a sharps service, and while previously patients could drop their sharps in appropriate containers to the DHB, it felt it could do more to take the service more widely into the community, Mr Sheffield said.
A free service, based in pharmacies, was a convenient way for people to dispose of sharps at the same time as collecting their medicines and receiving advice about their use.Funding for the initiative was capped at $80,000 a year, but the DHB did not expect costs to reach that level.
