6-month delay for sharps collections in York

Sally Rowlinson, of Osbaldwick, said it would be irresponsible to put them in her bin but City of York Council had told her she faced a six month wait for them to be collected safely.

She said she had also been told she could not take them down to a council waste depot and leave them there, and she feared some diabetics facing such a wait would end up putting their needles in their bins.

She said in a letter to Osbaldwick councillor Mark Warters: “I think it’s disgusting we are having to store our clinical waste in our own homes, even though we pay our council tax.

“I didn’t ask to be diabetic and don’t really enjoy sticking a needle in myself everyday. I have to put the used sharps in a little plastic bin, and store these to be taken away. Not a nice thing to look at on a daily basis.

“I really don’t mind waiting for a few weeks or so but to be told the waiting period from now is six months is really not on.”

Cllr Warters said diabetic people paying council tax were facing ‘startling’ delays in getting sensible disposal schedules from the council for sharps boxes, when the same authority carried out extra collections of waste dumped in streets at the end of term by students who were non- council taxpayers.

He said the increase in users of the council’s collection service was an entirely predictable outcome of hospitals, GPs and pharmacies no longer offering disposal facilities for sharps.

“I hope that funding is made available immediately to alleviate this distressing situation for people who through no fault of their own find themselves having to dispose of used needles as part of self medication for long term medical conditions such as diabetes.”

Neil Ferris, director of economy and place at the council, said: “Additional resources have been allocated for the backlog to be cleared in the next ten working days. Meanwhile, we are looking at a longer-term, sustainable solution with organisations including the NHS and waste partners.”