Weight-loss jab boom brings Coventry needles warning for recyclers
The boom in injectable weight-loss drugs, such as Mounjaro and Wegovy, is leading to more used needles turning up at recycling centres, putting workers at risk of serious injury and infection, bosses say.
At a recycling plant in Coventry, I watched staff sorting rubbish on a fast-moving conveyor belt when a crushed yellow sharps container suddenly appeared among the waste.
“A resident has put this in a wheelie bin,” explained supervisor Paul Pagett.
“It then gets crushed by the recycling vehicle and then it comes to us open and obviously we’ve got needles then falling out onto the line putting my guys at risk.”
The sharps box should never have been there.
Used needles should be disposed of separately through dedicated clinical waste services. Instead, recycling bosses say they are increasingly finding them mixed in with household waste.
“There are safe disposal routes for needles but the worst place to put them is in your recycling,” said Richard Dobbs, managing director of Sherborne Recycling.
“It ends up in facilities like ours where it will be touched by people and that’s inherently unsafe.”