No charge for sharps collection
Published
Thursday 8 October, 2026
Updated
Thursday 8 October, 2026
Swale residents who rely on sharps collections can once again safely dispose of this vital medical equipment for free.
Swale Borough Council has announced it is scrapping the small fee previously charged if people needed more than two collections per year.
This is in response to local people reporting growing difficulty in finding local pharmacies able to accept items like insulin needles and allergy autoinjectors.
When the charges were first implemented, this was not the case.
By offering this service for free again, the council will keep hazardous medical waste out of regular household waste collections.
This helps keep waste collection crews safe from dangerous accidents and prevents costly delays at sorting facilities.
The council’s contractor collects sharps regularly and aims to collect them within seven days of a resident requesting a collection.
When ordering a sharps box from their GP or healthcare provider, people should try to use as large a capacity as necessary and only request their collection for when their boxes are full.
This helps keep the service running efficiently by minimising the number of trips the crew has to make around the borough.
Cllr Dolley Wooster, chair of the council’s environmental services and climate change committee, said:
“People who rely on medical equipment like this to lead full lives should not face extra hurdles or costs just to dispose of their waste.
“People have told us they haven’t been able to find places to safely dispose of their medical waste, so we decided to step in and help.
“Needles and sharps also pose a serious risk to the collection crews if they’re disposed of in the general waste, and this will help us keep the crews safe.”
You can find out more about sharps collections or request a collection by visiting the council’s website.
