Augusta-Richmond County, GA Public Health Rules: Syringe Disposal (2026)

Sec. 4-2-51 defines the waste this article covers. 'Sharps' means any discarded article that may cause punctures or cuts, expressly including needles, IV tubing and syringes with needles attached, and scalpel blades; it sits inside the broader 'biomedical waste' definition alongside pathological waste, bulk blood and body fluids, infectious cultures, contaminated animal carcasses and chemotherapy waste. A 'collector' is anyone, compensated or not, who collects or transports asbestos or biomedical waste from a business, institution or residential dwelling. Sec. 4-2-52 requires a collector to get a manifest form from the landfill's solid waste engineer at least ten days before disposal, documenting how the material was generated, transported and will be disposed of, consistent with the Georgia Department of Natural Resources Environmental Protection Division's solid-waste rules.

Sec. 4-2-53 gives landfill representatives a standing right to inspect a collector's removal site any time before disposal. Sec. 4-2-54 bars a collector from bringing asbestos or biomedical waste to the county landfill if it wasn't generated inside Richmond County, unless Augusta-Richmond County has a contract covering it, closing off the landfill as a dumping ground for out-of-county medical and sharps waste. None of these sections regulates how an individual resident bags a used needle at home; the article targets the commercial haulers and generators who move sharps and biomedical material to the landfill, and this chapter contains no separate needle-exchange or harm-reduction siting ordinance.