Shoreline, WA Public Health Rules: Syringe Disposal (2026)

Shoreline Municipal Code § 13.14.010 defines "garbage" to exclude hazardous wastes generally, but it carves out one exception: sharps generated for personal use, meaning syringes, needles and lancets, count as ordinary garbage only when they are contained in a city-approved container. Loose or unenclosed sharps fall back into the excluded categories and are treated as household hazardous waste instead. The same section's definition of "household hazardous wastes" specifically names infectious wastes and sharps/syringes among the materials prohibited from disposal as city waste, alongside items like fluorescent light bulbs, vehicle batteries and flammable liquids.

In practice, a Shoreline household must use an approved sharps container before that waste can go out with the regular garbage cart; sharps that are simply bagged loose or tossed into a can are not lawful garbage under this chapter. The city manager holds general enforcement authority for the garbage code under § 13.14.030, and § 13.14.110 separately bars household hazardous waste from being deposited in any residential or commercial garbage receptacle set out for collection by the authorized collection company. Enforcement is civil, not criminal: § 13.14.240 sets a graduated civil infraction schedule under RCW 7.80.120, with penalties for unlawful disposal violations at § 13.14.110 reaching a $125 default fine, not including statutory assessments, on top of any abatement remedy available under Chapter 20.30 SMC.

The chapter does not address needle-exchange or harm-reduction program siting; it regulates only how sharps generated at home may be discarded with the city's waste stream.