Council launches medical waste collection program for livestock producers

by KATE PROCTER

If you’ve got livestock, you’ve got medicine.  And needles.  And probably scalpels.  And way back in the drug fridge, you might even have something that is past its “best before” date.  All of these items have always raised a disposal dilemma – no one wants to accidentally get stabbed by an old needle or cut with a rusty scalpel.  The Ontario Farm Animal Council (OFAC) launched a pilot project recently that will provide livestock producers with a safe means of disposing of sharps and outdated drugs.

Dubbed “clean sweep”, OFAC Executive Director, Crystal MacKay explains that the project is currently not part of the larger Clean Sweep program, which is already in existence for safe pesticide disposal.  At this point, the plan is to bring the two initiatives together in 2009, providing farmers with a dependable way to dispose of pesticide containers, sharps and out-dated livestock medicines.

“Farmers who have taken the Livestock Medicines courses in the past have indicated that they aren’t sure how to properly dispose of sharps,” says MacKay. "Ontario is the first jurisdiction in North America that is undertaking this type of pilot collection program for animal health products as a way of protecting water quality."

Producers can bring sharps and unused livestock medicines to a series of collection points throughout Eastern and Southwestern Ontario during the week of November 17. While OFAC has distributed yellow sharps containers, MacKay explains that any “secure” container is fine for transporting the material to the collection sites.

OFAC, AGCare, the Canadian Animal Health Coalition, the Ontario Veterinary Medical Association, the Ontario Agri Business Association and the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs are all working together on this pilot project.

For more information, including disposal sites and dates, visit www.ofac.org. BF