Illinois e-News Release

SPRINGFIELD —Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (Illinois EPA) Director John J. Kim today announced a new funding opportunity to provide grants to units of local government to conduct household sharps collections for residents. This is the first time the Illinois EPA has offered a grant program for residential sharps collections on this scale. Sharps, including needles, syringes, and lancets, collected from private citizens are a household waste. Through the grant program, Illinois EPA will reimburse grantees that operate a sharps collection station as defined in Section 3.458 of the Illinois Environmental Protection Act for collection and disposal costs they incur. A Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) has been posted to the Illinois EPA website.

“Residents throughout Illinois use medical sharps to manage medical conditions at home, with limited options for safe disposal,” said Director Kim. “Through this program, we will provide the necessary funding for local governments to assist residents and properly disposal of medical sharps.”

Expenses incurred in collecting, storing, and disposing of used sharps will be eligible under the program. Eligible expenses include costs to obtain 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 fees for the collected sharps. Each unit of local government is eligible for the actual costs of sharps collection and disposal, up to $35,000. All required forms and information can be found at: https://epa.illinois.gov/topics/waste-management/waste-disposal/medication-disposal/sharps.html.

Applications for the Residential Sharps Collection Program will be accepted June 13, 2023 through 5:00 PM (CST) on July 28, 2023.

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