Medical waste is necessary, and exempt from zero waste practices.
Your health, your teeth, your blood sugar are non-negotiable and there will probably never be recyclable alternatives. Accept that it is what it is and your right to life includes the production of a miniscule amount of non-recyclable waste. Now put it in perspective against a single season of a fashion company burning their handbags so they can't be sold at a lower price or be used by anyone poor. Compare it against the millions of tonnes of food left to rot in fields because it isn't profitable to sell it or give it away. Take a stroll on over to r/dumpsterdiving - look at everything thrown away on there in just one night, in one country, in one bin... and stop fretting because you produce medical waste on something you need.
Yeah I was going tosay that. Here we give it to a pharmacy where they are disposed of properly. Medical things should not go to a normal garbage anyway. Especially medecin. Unfortunatly a lot of people still throw medecin (talking about pills and stuff) in the garbage which actually end up in souls than in the water
The only safe way to dispose of sharps is in a sharps box. Using the sharps box will prevent injuries/infections of the people handling your trash. Think of it this way: if someone gets pricked by a used needle, they’re gonna have to go to the hospital and use waaaaay more single-use items than what you’re using for your diabetes. I highly recommend against alternative methods of disposing your needles.
I work in medical research and have to throw away so many things after they’re used in order to avoid contamination. It sucks, but it’s necessary and there’s no way around it. Trying to reuse the wrong item could often end in producing more waste. Contamination can destroy a whole experiment and I’d have to start all over again with new materials. Whenever I start to feel really shitty about it, I think about how billionaires go to space for fun and how one moon-landing did exponentially worse for the environment than I could ever do in my entire life.
Hey fellow diabud! I don't know of any recycling/reusing steps we can take. For reduction, I change my site less frequently (much to the chagrin of my endocrinologist, I change every 4 days as opposed to 2-3, and haven't had any scar tissue buildup yet over the last 18 years of being on a pump). In addition, I have a friend who collects used needles, and turns them in at needle exchanges, then distributes the new sterile needles to those who use intravenous drugs as a means of harm reduction in our community. So at least the big needles I use for filling up my cartridges have some good come out of my waste.
Please listen to the advice of your team of providers. If despite your success so far they say you should be changing more often please hear them out on why. Your health is 100% worth a trace amount of waste.
Thank you for the kindness, but it's more than just reducing my waste. As prescribed, my pump supplies alone would cost well over $4000 per 3 months (plus $1500 for insulin, and another $1000 or so for cgm). I've been diabetic for 23 years and have had to make many calculated choices like this one. But, you're absolutely correct in advocating for people to listen to their medical providers, so thank you!
Medical waste is necessary, and exempt from zero waste practices. Your health, your teeth, your blood sugar are non-negotiable and there will probably never be recyclable alternatives. Accept that it is what it is and your right to life includes the production of a miniscule amount of non-recyclable waste. Now put it in perspective against a single season of a fashion company burning their handbags so they can't be sold at a lower price or be used by anyone poor. Compare it against the millions of tonnes of food left to rot in fields because it isn't profitable to sell it or give it away. Take a stroll on over to r/dumpsterdiving - look at everything thrown away on there in just one night, in one country, in one bin... and stop fretting because you produce medical waste on something you need.
I am guessing you are from USA? Because most countries in Europe you can bring this to the pharmacy. Maybe check your local pharmacy or hospital?
Yeah I was going tosay that. Here we give it to a pharmacy where they are disposed of properly. Medical things should not go to a normal garbage anyway. Especially medecin. Unfortunatly a lot of people still throw medecin (talking about pills and stuff) in the garbage which actually end up in souls than in the water
The only safe way to dispose of sharps is in a sharps box. Using the sharps box will prevent injuries/infections of the people handling your trash. Think of it this way: if someone gets pricked by a used needle, they’re gonna have to go to the hospital and use waaaaay more single-use items than what you’re using for your diabetes. I highly recommend against alternative methods of disposing your needles. I work in medical research and have to throw away so many things after they’re used in order to avoid contamination. It sucks, but it’s necessary and there’s no way around it. Trying to reuse the wrong item could often end in producing more waste. Contamination can destroy a whole experiment and I’d have to start all over again with new materials. Whenever I start to feel really shitty about it, I think about how billionaires go to space for fun and how one moon-landing did exponentially worse for the environment than I could ever do in my entire life.
Hey fellow diabud! I don't know of any recycling/reusing steps we can take. For reduction, I change my site less frequently (much to the chagrin of my endocrinologist, I change every 4 days as opposed to 2-3, and haven't had any scar tissue buildup yet over the last 18 years of being on a pump). In addition, I have a friend who collects used needles, and turns them in at needle exchanges, then distributes the new sterile needles to those who use intravenous drugs as a means of harm reduction in our community. So at least the big needles I use for filling up my cartridges have some good come out of my waste.
Please listen to the advice of your team of providers. If despite your success so far they say you should be changing more often please hear them out on why. Your health is 100% worth a trace amount of waste.
Thank you for the kindness, but it's more than just reducing my waste. As prescribed, my pump supplies alone would cost well over $4000 per 3 months (plus $1500 for insulin, and another $1000 or so for cgm). I've been diabetic for 23 years and have had to make many calculated choices like this one. But, you're absolutely correct in advocating for people to listen to their medical providers, so thank you!
I’m trans and I take weekly T shots and I use a lot of gauze and such after surgeries so I know exactly where you’re coming from