Loose needles must never go in household waste or recycling. Waste and recycling workers sort material by hand at some point in almost every system, and a needle in a bag is how they get injured. Every route below exists to prevent that, and using one is straightforward.
Use a proper container
The best option is a purpose-made sharps container, which is puncture resistant, has a one-way lid and is widely sold in pharmacies and online. Where one is not available, a heavy rigid plastic household container with a screw-on lid, such as an empty laundry detergent bottle, is the accepted substitute. Do not use a drinks bottle, a milk carton, glass, or anything a needle will go through.
Label the container clearly as containing sharps, fill it no more than about three quarters, and close the lid permanently once it is full. Never try to empty and reuse it.
Never recap, bend or break a needle
Most needlestick injuries to the person using the needle happen while recapping it. Drop it straight into the container point first, without putting the cap back on and without separating the needle from the syringe.
Where to take a full container
A drop-off point. Hospitals, many pharmacies, doctors' surgeries, health departments and some fire stations accept full sharps containers, sometimes free and sometimes for a small charge.
A mail-back service. You buy a kit containing an approved container and a prepaid, correctly packaged return box, and post it back when full. This is the practical answer for anyone without a convenient drop-off, and it is the route most often recommended for home users.
Household hazardous waste collection. Many county HHW sites accept sealed sharps containers on their normal collection days.
A collection service, for households generating a large volume, arranged through a medical waste contractor.
The rules are not the same everywhere
Some states prohibit household sharps in the trash outright, others permit a properly sealed rigid container. Because the strict rule and the lenient one look identical from the kerb, the safe practice is the same in both cases: rigid sealed container, and a drop-off or mail-back route rather than the bin. Check your own state or county before assuming the bin is acceptable.
Never flush anything
Needles, lancets and syringes must not be flushed. They pass into the sewer intact and reappear at the treatment works, where somebody has to handle them.
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