Needle trash is a problem. Should you pick it up?

When needle trash litters the ground, it creates a health hazard. And the problem is growing with the opioid epidemic.

Drug users don’t always take advantage of needle exchanges. Used needles can spread HIV and Hepatitis.

Now, some neighborhood groups are training people to pick up needles themselves.

Miranda Berner helped organize a training in Wallingford at the Boys and Girls Club. “I just feel we all need to do what we can do to keep people safe," Berner said.

Berner said she’s already warned her young daughter to call an adult if she sees a needle, but she knows kids get into stuff.

“To have them get poked or sick because they unintentionally touched something, that would be awful.” Berner said.

Berner adds that the Wallingford Neighborhood Council asked the city for this training because residents are doing the job anyway and sometimes unsafely.

Rick Sell has lived in the Wallingford neighborhood for nearly 30 years. He’s only seen one needle, but he wants to be prepared because he thinks it’s only a matter of time before he’ll see more. “We’ve experienced homeless camps and homeless in the neighborhood. We’ve got to look out for ourselves.”

During the 30-minute training, Seattle Public Utilities' Alison Steinbacher told the small group of neighbors that it's important to use gloves and tongs to pick up the waste and then put it into a sealable container. She tapped a small orange juice bottle on the table to demonstrate. “My rule is that if I can make a drum with it, it’s good,” Steinbacher said.

Steinbacher says the container must be disposed safely, ideally in one of the city’s nine drop boxes. Putting needles in the trash is illegal and dangerous, because trash is still hand sorted.

If you don’t want to take the job on yourself, Steinbacher recommended that you use the city’s Find it Fix it app and someone will come pick up the needle within 24 hours. “It’s up to your comfort level, but know if you don’t pick that needle up that’s going to leave a risk for the next person walking by,” Steinbacher said.

Public Health Seattle King County estimates that there are 25,000 people in King County who use illegal drugs intravenously.