It is one of the biggest complaints about homelessness in the Portland community – the used, dirty and dangerous hypodermic needles left on the ground. The issue was been growing worse since the city stopped sweeping and clearing out homeless camps during the coronavirus pandemic. But the very company hired to do those homeless clear-outs, and pick up those nasty needles, has come up with a one-of-a-kind process for safely recycling those needles instead of throwing them away.

“We’ve worked really hard on figuring out ways to make this work,” said Lance Hamel, president of Rapid Response. He says every month his company deals with 5 to 6 tons of needles from camps, needle exchange programs and clinics. “There are just millions of them. So, the fact that we can take basically 90% of this waste and recycle it is incredible,” he said.

It starts with a machine that many hospitals use to dispose of sharp objects. It heats, pressurizes, pulverizes and sanitizes the hypodermic needles into a hash of bits of plastic and metal so they can be thrown away safely. That’s where Hamel and his Rapid Response crew step in. They keep what’s left of those needles out of landfill.

The invention doesn’t look like much – a mix of power tools, garden tools, a pool strainer and a drying rack that bangs up and down like some sort of high school shop-class project – but it works. “The materials that we have are high density polyethylene, polypropylene, rubber, polystyrene and stainless steel,” Hamel said.

They use a system of flotation tanks with different liquids to separate the materials. In one corner he has huge bags of polypropylene ready to go. “We will do about 20,000 pounds in a (shipping) container. Right now, the frequency is about every six weeks. This will get shipped to someone in California who wants to use it,” Hamel described.

To read the full story, visit https://katu.com/news/homeless-crisis-the-best-we-can-do/portland-company-keeps-hypodermic-needles-out-of-landfills-by-recycling-them.
Author: Brian Wood, KATU
Image: KATU

Sponsor