Used needles from the weight-loss jab boom are spilling onto recycling lines in Coventry, putting staff at risk of infection

Richard Dobbs, managing director of Sherborne Recycling in Coventry, warns that privately prescribed weight-loss injections such as Mounjaro and Wegovy are fuelling a sharp rise in used needles thrown into household bins, because buyers receive no sharps box and no advice on safe disposal. The facility processes roughly 175,000 tonnes of mixed household waste a year and serves approximately 1.5 million residents, yet workers are still required to hand-sort the line where crushed yellow sharps containers now regularly burst open.

Supervisor Paul Pagett has filled an entire cupboard with recovered sharps containers since January, all pulled from the recycling stream.

A refuse worker in Doncaster was taken to hospital after a weight-loss needle penetrated two pairs of gloves, requiring four vaccinations, follow-up booster shots and several blood tests.

Waste firm Suez UK puts the annual number of weight-loss jabs prescribed at 104 million and is calling for a national safe-disposal scheme.