The City of Yorkton now has a third location for people to safely dispose of used needles, should they come across one.
It was promoted this morning (Fri) by members of the Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA), Yorkton Fire Protective Services, the City and Yorkton Chamber of Commerce.
The needle bin is at the Fire Hall on Smith Street, and the other two are located at the hospital on Bradbrooke Drive and at the SIGN Building on Broadway. Melville has two bins and Kamsack has one.
“Safety for all is our number one priority and we know that conveniently located needle drop bins and access to harm reduction programs will reduce risk for our community,” said SHA Medical Health Officer for the Yorkton area Dr. Ashok Chhetri in a news release.
Executive Director of the Yorkton Chamber of Commerce Juanita Polegi says they had a hand in identifying the location of these bins.
“We felt that you can’t just plunk a bin anywhere, you have to have consultation and information provided to the business community. So the Chamber came on board with the sub-committee and we’ve been working with the groups to try to make sure that when the next needle bin is set up that everybody’s in favour and understands the need for that bin.” Polegi said.
Fire Chief Trevor Morrissey says the bin will help curtail the issue of improperly disposing needles.
“You can tell people aren’t doing it to be malicious about anything, they just don’t know where to take them,” Morrissey said. “So we’re providing a visible bin that they can take them to, no questions asked, just take them, drop them off, and they will be disposed of properly.”
Morrissey says if people are not sure how to properly go about disposing a needle, there is a number to contact.
“We ask that you phone (306) 786-1797. If our crews aren’t available it will have an answering machine which will say ‘tell us your name, date, time and location of the needle and we will come and get it as soon as we get that message.”