Sharps and infectious waste collection

We offer free sharps and orange bag collections if you need to dispose of needles or infectious waste.

Your GP surgery or hospital will tell you if items other than needles need to be disposed of as infectious waste.

Common examples of infectious waste include:

Infectious waste (orange bags)

Infectious waste must be placed in orange bags if it:

has been identified as infectious by a medical professional
came from a:
- clinical environment
- patient being treated for infection or from contact with a patient carrying a transmissible disease
- patient with a history of a known infection, for example a blood-borne virus or C-difficile

WarningInfectious waste placed in orange bags must not contain sharps or medicinal contamination

Sharps (infected or non-infected) must be placed into a sharps container marked with a coloured lid.

There are 3 different lids for sharps boxes:

Purple - disposal of toxic waste (Cytotoxic or Cytostatic - commonly used in treatment for cancer, rheumatoid arthritis and multiple sclerosis)
Yellow - disposal of contaminated needles
Orange - disposal of needles which are not contaminated

Use our online form to request a sharps box or orange bag:

Or to rebook a missed collection.

We collect sharps boxes and orange bags from 7.30am on your collection day. We aim to finish all collections by 4pm.

On collection day make sure you have:

placed your container at the agreed collection point
someone there to give our team access if we are collecting from inside your property

The following items do not need a clinical waste collection:

These items should be double wrapped and disposed in your brown bin. Clinical waste is not accepted by our recycling centres.

If you have too much waste for your bin you can request a bin.