Two pharmacies in Quitman have recently joined the Mississippi Household Medical Sharps Disposal Program. Hammack Drug Store and The Pharmacy of Quitman are two of the most recent additions to a statewide network of more than 300 pharmacies that accept disposal syringes, lancets, and other medical sharps generated in the home. The program, administered by the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ), offers a safer alternative for the disposal of used needles instead of household trash bags. Needles placed in trash bags often pose a threat to people in the waste management business that pick up the trash or handle it at a landfill.
MDEQ noticed that when Fred’s pharmacies closed around the state in 2019, a number of communities, including Quitman, were left without a convenient drop-off location. Hammack Drug Store, located at 101 West Donald Street, and The Pharmacy of Quitman, located at 125 Main Street, were eager to step up and offer this free service to those in the community who need it. All sharps dropped off at one of these two locations must be in a purchased sharps container or an empty plastic consumer products container.
Statewide, the program has been successful in collecting more than 62,000 pounds of medical sharps, or more than 10 million individual syringes, from diabetics and other home users. More information about the program and a list of drop off locations can be found at: https://www.mdeq.ms.gov/land/waste-division/solid-waste-management-progr....
