{"id":83,"date":"2011-09-10T14:05:16","date_gmt":"2011-09-10T14:05:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sfswma.org\/?page_id=83"},"modified":"2025-10-17T11:50:26","modified_gmt":"2025-10-17T17:50:26","slug":"medical-waste","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sfswma.org\/?page_id=83","title":{"rendered":"Medical Waste"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2 style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #993300;\">Medical waste consists of sharps, medicines, and controlled substances and it is considered a &#8220;special waste&#8221;.\u00a0 Handling medical waste carefully is very important in order to prevent someone else from getting pricked or sick.\u00a0 Not to mention, it is very important to keep medicines and controlled substances from contaminating our drinking water supply.<\/span><\/h2>\n<p>The BuRRT Household Hazardous Waste (HHW) Collection Center <span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">DOES NOT accept medical waste<\/span>. See below to learn how you can properly dispose of your household generated medical waste. Hospitals, home stays, and doctor\u2019s offices should have a removal service in place and do not have the same exceptions as household medical waste.<\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"color: #993300;\">Why not just put it down the drain?<\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Disposing medicine down the drain or toilet can cause chemicals and toxins to pollute our environment, especially our ground water supply which can contaminate our parks, drinking water, farms and more.<\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"color: #993300;\">How should I handle and dispose of my medical waste?<\/span><\/h2>\n<ul style=\"list-style-type: disc;\">\n<li>\n<h3><strong>Sharps<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"color: #99cc00;\">Sharps can go in the trash<\/span>, <strong>BUT<\/strong> t<span style=\"color: #99cc00;\">hey must be in a puncture proof container with a cap and be properly labeled.<\/span><\/p>\n<ul style=\"list-style-type: disc;\">\n<li>Try using a detergent bottle with a screw-on cap and label the bottle with &#8220;shaprs&#8221; or &#8220;needles&#8221;.<\/li>\n<li>Once the bottle is full and the cap secured, place it in your household trash can.<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">DO NOT put the bottle in the recycling bin or cart<\/span>.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Please don\u2019t jeopardize other people\u2019s health because of your carelessness<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Or, <span style=\"color: #99cc00;\">you can properly dispose of your sharps or hypodermic needles at the following location<\/span>:<\/h2>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 120px;\"><strong>Santa Fe Public Health Office (PHO)<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>605 Letrado St # B<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>Santa Fe, New Mexico<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>(505) 476-2600<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul style=\"list-style-type: disc;\">\n<li>\n<h3><strong>Medicines<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Pills, vitamins, prescription drugs, and any liquids (cough syrup, eye drops) <span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">should not be put or poured down the drain or toilet<\/span>.\u00a0 It is very difficult for the waste water treatment plant to remove many of the chemicals that are in pharmaceutical drugs.\u00a0 <span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">The contaminated water can make its way into our rivers, fish, ground water supply, and eventually our oceans.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #99cc00;\">Medicine should be crushed, wetted, bagged, and disposed of in the trash so it cannot be used.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Or, <span style=\"color: #99cc00;\">contact your local pharmacy for drop-off box locations.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul style=\"list-style-type: disc;\">\n<li>\n<h3><strong>Controlled Substances<\/strong><\/h3>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 60px;\">Heavily regulated prescription or non prescription drugs should be treated like medicine and <span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">never put down the drain or in the trash<\/span>.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 60px;\"><span style=\"color: #99cc00;\">Controlled substances should be crushed, wetted, bagged, and disposed of in the trash so it cannot be used<\/span>. Or, <span style=\"color: #99cc00;\">talk to your local pharmacy or doctor to see if they will take back old prescriptions.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Medical waste consists of sharps, medicines, and controlled substances and it is considered a &#8220;special waste&#8221;.\u00a0 Handling medical waste carefully is very important in order to prevent someone else from &hellip;<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/sfswma.org\/?page_id=83\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":71,"menu_order":6,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-83","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sfswma.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/83","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sfswma.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sfswma.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sfswma.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sfswma.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=83"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/sfswma.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/83\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10237,"href":"https:\/\/sfswma.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/83\/revisions\/10237"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sfswma.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/71"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sfswma.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=83"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}