CBRM council to ask N.S. government for mandated sharps disposal program

Cape Breton is looking to do something about the growing needles problem.

It’s not uncommon for needles and sharps to be found in places they don’t belong.

“It’s a huge problem, and not just in my community where you will find some hot spots where people are recreationally using,” said Cape Breton Regional Municipality Coun. Steven MacNeil on Tuesday.

At Tuesday morning’s CBRM Committee of the Whole meeting, MacNeil put forth a motion asking the Nova Scotia government to mandate an Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) program for sharps.

MacNeil and CBRM Solid Waste manager Roschell Clarke added needles and sharps are also turning up at municipal landfills and at recycling depots.

“For our Solid Waste staff, they might grab a garbage bag off the curb and accidentally prick themselves in the leg,” MacNeil said.

However, the head of the Pharmacy Association of Nova Scotia (PANS) said the voluntary sharps disposal program that has been in place for about 25 years has been working well.

“We collect more sharps per capita than provinces that have a regulated program,” said Allison Bodnar, executive director of PANS.

Bodnar added the voluntary program has nearly 100 per cent participation from pharmacies and manufacturers.

She said improvements could be made when it comes to how sharps are collected elsewhere and public messaging about safe disposal.

“These behavioural changes are another piece that has to be considered,” Bodnar said.

“Just mandating regulation tomorrow will not change patient behaviour or how other providers or other organizations are disposing of those sharps.”

Still, the motion was approved on Tuesday by CBRM council.

The next step is expected to be a request to the province’s Department of Environment and Climate Change to mandate an EPR program and ensure adequate funding.

“We’ve done EPR for plastic, papers, recycling products and here we are with something even more serious and we’re not doing it,” MacNeil said.

“So, I’m really hoping that the province hears us.”

Bodnar said she would like to see lessons learned from the existing program in Nova Scotia, and programs in other provinces that have taken a regulatory approach, considered when coming up with solutions.

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