Residents may be paid to hand in used syringes

City residents could be paid to give used syringes and other medical waste to Shanghai hospitals for disposal, under a new proposal.

Political advisers are calling on the city authorities to provide incentives to tackle the problem of disposing of the 1 million syringes used by Shanghai residents every day at home.

Currently, these are often simply discarded along with domestic waste, creating health concerns as syringes and needles can harbor disease, including HIV/AIDs.

This situation has also led to an illegal used syringe trade, with plastic particles recycled to make goods such as toys, cups and water barrels.

Advisers have proposed that community hospitals and community medical service centers take charge of the collection and management of medical waste.

Paying small sums or giving little gifts would encourage people to hand over syringes and other waste, they said.

There is a management vacuum in the collection of medical waste in Shanghai, said Shi Lili, a Shanghai political adviser with Sinopharm Group, China's biggest pharmaceutical company.

Residents dump medical waste in garbage bins because there are no specific institutions or places that collect it, she added.

Community hospitals should be responsible for collecting medical waste from residents, Shi said.

Most of the syringes and needles are used by Shanghai's 1.8 million diabetics, of whom 30 percent need insulin injections at least twice a day.

A Shanghai resident surnamed Yu who took a stroke and suffers from chronic bronchitis said she dumps her medical waste products in a bin at her residential complex along with other household garbage.

"I don't know where else to put them," she said.

Contain bacteria

Lu Zhonglin, who has been working as a garbage collector for more than 10 years, said he often comes across medical waste in his job.

"I know these items are dirty and contain bacteria, but I can't avoid them when I'm working," he said.

Under Chinese regulations, medical waste must be separated from other rubbish and incinerated.

But there's a gray area in the collection of medical waste in Shanghai, admitted an official surnamed Sun with the Shanghai Greenery and Public Sanitation Bureau.

Medical waste doesn't fall into Shanghai's four categories of garbage classification — wet, dry, recyclable and dangerous — as it's deemed too hazardous.

However, garbage sorters will send medical waste to processing companies if it's found at garbage bins, he said.