This week, the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency’s Acting Director James Jennings announced a funding opportunity that will provide grants to units of local government for the collection and disposal of household sharps from their residents. Sharps, including needles, syringes, and lancets, collected from private citizens are a household waste. Through the grant program, the Illinois EPA will reimburse grantees that operate a sharps collection station as defined in Section 3.458 of the Illinois Environmental Protection Act. A Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) has been posted Illinois EPA website.
“We have seen great success from our Residential Sharps Collection Program to date and we look forward to continued work with our local partners,” said Acting Director Jennings. “By providing this funding to local governments, we are providing increased opportunities for residents to safely dispose of their medical sharps.”
Applicants may be eligible for funding of up to $35,000 to cover expenses incurred in collecting, storing, and disposing of used sharps. Eligible expenses include costs for advertising sharps collection stations, educational materials focused on proper disposal of sharps, obtaining collection containers for use by individual residents, collection receptacles to store sharps at the sharps collection station, mobilization fees assessed by a permitted Potentially Infectious Medical Waste (PIMW) transporter to pick-up collected sharps, and disposal for the collected sharps.
All required forms and information can be found at: https://epa.illinois.gov/topics/waste-management/waste-disposal/medication-disposal/sharps/residential-sharps-collection-program.html.
Applicants may not apply for a grant until they are pre-qualified through the Grant Accountability and Transparency Act (GATA) Grantee Portal.
Applications for the Residential Sharps Collection Program will be accepted until funding is expended or March 31, 2026.
