Smithtown, NY Public Health Rules: Syringe Disposal (2026)

Section 177-80 of the Solid Waste Management Law governs use of Town solid waste facilities, and Subsection D specifically targets medical sharps. It is unlawful to deposit or cause to be deposited any hypodermic needle or syringe at a Town-designated solid waste management facility unless it has first been destroyed by detaching the needle from the syringe, crushing and breaking the syringe, bending the needle, and depositing all of the resulting parts in a metal container secured so the parts cannot fall out. That requirement sits among a set of facility-wide prohibitions in the same section: Subsection C separately bars depositing hazardous waste generally, and MEDICAL WASTE is defined in § 177-4 to include hypodermic needles, intravenous tubing, syringes, test tubes, blood samples, pipettes, lances, scalpels and human blood or tissue, tracking the federal Medical Waste Tracking Act of 1988.

Facility operators and Town employees have authority under § 177-81 to search and seize the contents of any vehicle entering a solid waste management facility to check compliance with state, county and Town law, including this sharps rule, and any peace or police officer may seize without a warrant material believed to be a hazardous substance being processed or disposed of unlawfully. The rule applies to anyone bringing waste to the Municipal Services Facility or Resource Recovery Plant, not just medical businesses, so a resident dropping off household trash containing an undestroyed syringe is equally covered.