Medical Waste & Sharps Disposal Program

About the Program

Category: County Resiliency (Best in Category)

Year: 2017

In the quest to achieve “Zero Waste – or darn near” by 2025, Boulder County has recently identified medical waste as a waste stream that is traditionally hard to divert, but worthy of attention. The Boulder County Medical Waste & Sharps Disposal Program provides outlets for responsible disposal of this type of hazardous material. The Boulder County Resource Conservation Division (RCD) partnered with the Boulder County Sheriff’s Office, the Juvenile Detention Center, Boulder County Public Health, the Boulder County Coroner’s Office along with a private organization called Mental Health Partners, to introduce new drop-off locations for several different types of medical waste that traditionally cause problems for diversion. Materials like pharmaceuticals, sharps, biohazards, and pathological-related wastes now have new outlets for their responsible disposal throughout Boulder County instead of ending up in waste streams such as single stream recycling (where they cause significant safety risks). As a result of the new disposal system, the county has helped facilitate the safe removal of 10,520 pounds of medical waste in 2016 alone. This waste is then put through a process to physically reduce its size by 90% through an emission-free ozone process, meaning that after processing, the equivalent of 9,468 pounds of material was diverted from the landfill.