SPRINGFIELD – Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (Illinois EPA) Director James Jennings today announced another round of annual funding to provide grants to units of local government for the collection and proper 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, Illinois EPA reimburses 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 on the Illinois EPA website.

“Illinois EPA’s Residential Sharps Collection Program enables local governments to provide a valuable service to their residents for the safe disposal of their medical sharps,” said Director Jennings. “Thanks to the continued work by our local partners, this program has been very successful, resulting in the collection and proper disposal of approximately 32,807 pounds of medical sharps.”

Units of local government may be eligible for funding of up to $35,000 to cover expenses incurred from 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.

Applications for the Residential Sharps Collection Program will be accepted until funding is expended or March 31, 2027.

Applicants may not apply for a grant until they are pre-qualified through the Grant Accountability and Transparency Act (GATA) Grantee Portal.

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