Jacksonville, NC Public Health Rules: Syringe Disposal (2026)

Section 9-8(d) governs how residential and small-business customers must prepare garbage before it reaches the curb, and it singles out sharps for special handling because of the injury risk to collection crews. All garbage generally must be bagged in plastic or paper to keep it from blowing into the street, but the section goes further for anything that could cut or puncture a worker: glass, fluorescent tubes, vacuum tubes, light bulbs, sharp metals and similar materials must be securely wrapped and marked with a visible written warning to prevent injury while collecting, putting the burden on the household to flag the hazard before a collector ever touches the bag.

Hypodermic syringes get their own explicit rule rather than being lumped in with general sharp waste: they are required to be placed in a sharps container or a plastic milk jug with the cap on, and the container itself must be marked accordingly, so a collector encountering it knows what's inside before opening the bag. The provision sits inside the same subsection that also requires pet waste and diapers to be double-bagged, reflecting a broader pattern in Chapter 9 of shifting basic sanitation and safety prep work onto the person setting out the garbage rather than the crew that has to handle it at the curb.