What To Do With Your Sharp Items

It is the responsibility of residents to dispose of all sharp objects in a safe way.

If the item you are throwing away could endanger any person, animal or vehicle during collection or disposal, then you must take all steps to securely contain the item before placing it in your rubbish bag for collection.

This can be done by:

• wrapping the sharp item securely in thick cloth or multiple layers of thick newspaper (at least 5cm in thickness) and taping it to ensure the item doesn’t come loose from its wrapping during collection
• placing the sharp item/s in a sealed protective container before disposing in your rubbish bag.

This should be adequate for most small pieces of glass, metal and other sharp materials.

Here are some examples of items that must always be thickly wrapped or securely contained if disposing into a rubbish bag:

• any broken glass from drinking glasses, ovenware, windows or mirrors (regardless of size)
• any broken pieces of crockery and ceramics (regardless of size)
• any glassware with edges or points
• any sharp metal item or sharp-edged item such as steel or tin can lids or razor blades. Aluminium, steel and tin cans and their lids should be recycled through your kerbside recycling service instead.
• any sharp item that is capable of cutting, piercing or puncturing the skin.

Larger pieces or larger amounts of glass and other sharp items such as window glass panes, mirror glass, broken glass, ceramics, crockery, sharp metal pieces and pointed items should be taken to your local transfer station for disposal. See list of transfer stations below.

Medical sharps such as syringes and needles should never be disposed of in rubbish bags, recycling bins or recycling crates. These items need to be discarded directly into an approved disposal container immediately after use and taken to your local A&E or medical centre, where they will be disposed of safely and responsibly. Talk to your local chemist or medical practitioner about how to get appropriate sharps disposal containers.

Ideally glass and sharp items should not be disposed of in rubbish bag if it can be avoided. If you do have small amounts of these items, you must take all precautions to prevent injuries to anyone coming into contact with the bag – either during collection or while the bag is on the kerbside. Should the contents of your rubbish bag cause injury to a collector, you may be liable to prosecution.

Transfer stations

There are a number of transfer stations in the Auckland region which provide another option for rubbish disposal. Most of these are privately owned and operated so you will need to contact them directly to check what is accepted, confirm opening hours and check what fees may apply.