Skagit County, WA Public Health Rules: Syringe Disposal (2026)

350(5)(b) sets the rules for residential biomedical sharps waste, meaning needles, syringes with needles attached, IV tubing with needles, scalpel blades and lancets generated through self-treatment at a residence. A person may not place unprotected sharps into a recycling container or a regular solid waste container. Instead, sharps must go into a puncture-resistant, leak-proof container made of metal or plastic, clearly labeled with a visible biohazard symbol and the words 'Biohazard' and 'Sharps'; full containers should have their lids taped and tightly sealed. The sharps container itself may not be placed with recyclable material.

If the household's public or private solid waste collector does not run a program to collect source-separated sharps containers alongside regular trash pickup, the sealed residential container may go out with the regular household solid waste; residential sharps generation, collection and disposal is exempt from needing a Health Department solid waste permit. 350(5)(a) requires rigid, puncture-resistant, leak-proof metal or plastic containers with the same biohazard and 'Sharps' labeling, segregated from other waste, sealed and sent to a licensed biomedical waste treatment and disposal facility, with full containers stored on-site no longer than six months.

350(6), a pharmacy return program that accepts residential sharps containers is not treated as a solid waste handling facility and does not need a solid waste permit, but it must notify the Department of Ecology and the Health Department at least 30 days before starting, and a solid waste planning jurisdiction that wants to designate a residential sharps drop-off site must give the Health Department the same 30-day notice.