Brandon needle disposal program expanding

The City of Brandon is expanding its needle disposal program into more neighbourhoods, targeting areas that don’t currently have the containers.

Council was told at Monday evening’s meeting that four additional small sharps containers will be placed on city property as part of a pilot program. The containers allow people to safely dispose of items like used needles and EpiPens.

“Many people dispose of sharps unsafely simply because they have no safe disposal options available,” said Shannon Saltarelli, the city’s community housing and wellness co-ordinator.

Sharps are often thrown into garbage bins, toilets and sinks, posing a risk of transmission of diseases or injuries to others, Saltarelli said.

The city currently has 13 sharps bins, mainly in the downtown area and located in parks or at city buildings. The program was initially approved by council in 2019 with six containers and has slowly grown since.

The pilot program was brought forward after the city received an inquiry about having more containers around the city. That inquiry was from someone in the Willowdale Crescent area, Saltarelli told council.

The pilot locations are at the walking path behind the Willowdale apartments, the transit stops at the Shoppers Mall and North End Community Centre, and Cornell Park. Saltarelli said those locations could change if the containers “cannot be safely installed,” though they would still be placed in the same general area.

“You want to put them in places that are publicly accessible,” Saltarelli said. “It’s meeting people where they’re already at.”

City spokesperson Merrilea Metcalf on Thursday said “we think the sharps will be implemented in a few weeks.”

In an interview on Wednesday, Saltarelli said having the containers, which vary in size from a mailbox to something you can mount on a wall, is “really important to keep our community safe (and) remove stigma as part of harm reduction.”

She said Brandon does have “some struggles with drug use” and that there has been an increase in sharps usage in the community.

“When we talk about the drug use, we do need to recognize that people need a safe and accessible place to take their sharps,” she said.

“There’s an assumption that when you put a sharps container in an area that that’s going to attract drug users. That’s not true,” Saltarelli said. “The locations that we are choosing are locations where it has already (been) known that drug use is happening.”

In 2025, the Brandon Neighbourhood Renewal Corporation’s Fresh Start program picked up 1,500 sharps downtown. That figure doesn’t include the number of sharps Bear Clan or other organizations picked up.

Saltarelli said based on the results of the pilot project, she would like to see the sharps disposal system continue to be used and grow, and to build relationships with organizations like agencies and clinics to increase the number of containers available.

If the pilot locations aren’t utilized, the containers will be moved elsewhere, she said.

Coun. Bruce Luebke (Ward 6) asked at the meeting if a buffer zone should be added so that the containers aren’t placed too close to schools or playgrounds.

Saltarelli said that hasn’t been brought up before, though she did have one moved away from a splash pad as “it felt like the right thing to do.”

Mayor Jeff Fawcett said the city has had discussions with the Brandon School Division about making sure the containers near schools are kept clean.

“If people are in the neighbourhood finding things, it’s good to get them away from the schools,” Fawcett said during the meeting. “We don’t want people doing any of that stuff anywhere around schools.”

After the meeting, Fawcett said it’s unfortunate that residents “have to live in a society where that is an issue for people,” but that expanding the program “doesn’t hurt.”

The pilot project won’t cost the city any extra money for equipment as the containers were already bought in 2025. There is a small cost for regular sharps pickup and exchanging inserts in the containers.

» alambert@brandonsun.com