Lexington: Quit putting needles, IV bags in recycling bins. Workers are getting hurt.
The city of Lexington pleaded with residents Tuesday to stop putting needles, IV bags, tubes, vials and other medical waste in recycling bins.
Employees at Lexington’s recycling center on Thompson Road have been stuck by dirty needles, potentially jeopardizing their health, and medical tubing can wrap around machinery and shut down the recycling center for hours at a time, city officials said in a news release.
Recycling staff have to climb into the machines and cut the tubing out, sometimes causing long delays. And when biohazards are found on the sorting line — which is where plastics, glass and metals are sorted — all material on that line must be sent to the landfill, city officials said.
If any medical waste makes it into bales of materials that are presorted for sale, companies won’t purchase the city’s material, officials warned.
All medical waste should be placed with biohazard or landfill waste. Medical waste has long been an issue at the recycling center, but city officials said the amount of medical waste entering the facility has increased in recent months.
The center was shut down in early January to make upgrades. It receives recycling from more than a dozen other local governments.
