SPRINGFIELD —Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (Illinois EPA) Director John J. Kim today announced an additional funding opportunity to provide grants to units of local government to conduct household waste collection and disposal of sharps for their residents. 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. A Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) has been posted Illinois EPA website.
“This grant program provides needed funding to local governments to offer residents a safe, free option to safely dispose of medical sharps,” said Director Kim. “Many households face the challenge of properly disposing medical sharps, and we encourage local units of government to apply for this funding and ensure medical sharps are collected and disposed of properly.”
Grant funding of up to $35,000 per applicant is available to cover expenses incurred in collecting, storing, and disposing of used sharps. 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 sharp. 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 June 30, 2025.
Applicants may not apply for a grant until they are pre-qualified through the Grant Accountability and Transparency Act (GATA) Grantee Portal.