Rancho Cucamonga, CA Public Health Rules: Syringe Disposal (2026)

020 defines 'sharps' to include, but not limit to, home-generated hypodermic needles, pen needles, syringes, intravenous needles and lancets. 130(D) folds sharps into the same prohibition that covers hazardous waste, universal waste, medical waste, battery acid, and any other substance capable of damaging clothing or causing injury: none of it may be mixed or placed with refuse, recyclables or organics that the authorized collector picks up. Anyone who generates sharps at home has to arrange removal separately, and the ordinance puts the cost of that arrangement on the occupant, only after the occupant has coordinated with the authorized collector or the city for pickup.

150 lets the collector red-tag and refuse to service a recycling or organics container found to hold prohibited material, and a customer caught contaminating a container after a warning is billed a contamination fee under the current rate schedule, with that fee triggered automatically whenever hazardous or biohazardous material such as sharps turns up in a bin. Repeat contamination, three notices, lets the city manager order the container removed altogether. None of this creates a citywide needle-exchange or take-back siting rule; the ordinance is a disposal-stream prohibition, not a program-siting chapter, so its reach stops at keeping sharps out of the regular waste stream.