Safe Needle Disposal

Needles- hand sewing or machine- an important tool in the sewing world, but one that can be hazardous also. What do you do with your broken, damaged or bent needles and pins? I know for many years mine just went into the waste basket and from there into the garbage bin. Sometimes I would put the damaged item into a piece of fabric, but that was about it.

After reading a few horror stories involving needles and various body parts I decided a safer method of disposal was needed! I now have an empty flip lid pill bottle in the draw next to my sewing machine into which go the used/damaged/broken machine needles; bent pins and hand sewing needles that are well used, bent or otherwise damaged. The bottle can then be taped shut and thrown out, or taken to a local doctors office and disposed of into their sharps disposal box.

Of course, it doesn’t have to be a flip lid bottle, but that flip lid is handy. A sturdy plastic bottle with a screw lid works too. It is just the fact that the sharps are being disposed of safely and no one can get hurt.

So next time you finish a bottle of vitamins and are about to recycle the bottle, think about keeping it next to your sewing machine for safe needle disposal.