NYC Council Introduction 1169

intro.nyc/1169-2025 2024-2025 Legislative Session
Safe collection and disposal of needles and syringes.
Status: Committee Committee on Mental Health, Disabilities and Addiction
Sponsored by Oswald Feliz
Introduced: January 23, 2025

This bill would require that syringe exchange program staff provide guidance to each program participant regarding safe disposal practices for needles, syringes, and sharps. Such guidance would include information about safe needle, syringe and sharp disposal sites located in the surrounding community. The bill would also require that syringe exchange program staff maintain safe needle, syringe, and sharp disposal receptacles in each program location in areas that are publicly accessible at all times, and that the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) and syringe exchange programs contracted with DOHMH create and implement a plan that ensures that needles, syringes, and sharps provided by each program are collected and safely disposed of following their use. The bill requires DOHMH to publish on its website information regarding the number of needles, syringes, and sharps provided by each syringe exchange program to program participants, and the number of discarded or used needles, syringes, and sharps collected by such programs. Such information would be published on a monthly basis.