The woman was walking down Heber Street on Friday when she came across a used syringe lying on the ground. During her efforts to remove the syringe, she found that Moree Plains Shire Council staff were “not much help”.

Although the woman does not want to be named, she did want her story to be told because she was concerned about the council’s reaction to the matter.

She said as soon as she saw the syringe on the footpath directly in front of two houses she phoned Moree council.

“I thought they would have someone able to come and safely remove the used syringe. However, instead the person (female) told me she’d never received such a call and wasn’t sure what could be done.  I was placed on hold several times while various extension numbers were tried, all to no avail, so they asked for my contact details so that I could be called back,” she said.

The woman told the council worker that she was on-foot and that she did not want to walk off and leave the syringe lying on the footpath where anyone could potentially hurt themselves with it.

“Next I telephoned the Moree hospital who immediately transferred my call to a used syringe hotline; their number is 1800NEEDLE and is based in Sydney. He said that this was the first call he himself had ever received from Moree and was shocked the council were unable to take control of the situation,” the resident said.

Whilst on the phone to the hotline, she noticed that the Moree vets were just down the road and thought they might have a yellow sharps container to safely dispose of the syringe.

“Before I walked up to the vets I knocked on one of the two houses that were in the immediate vicinity of the syringe, but no-one answered. I didn’t approach the other house because the gate was closed and on it was a sign warning of dogs,” she said.

The woman explained to the staff at the vets why she was there and said the worker at the front desk couldn’t have been more understanding and fetched her a sharps container and four gloves – so she could double glove.

“I then disposed of the syringe, thanked them and gave back the sharps container, washed my hands, then rang the hotline to let them know I had safely disposed of the syringe,” she said.

According to the woman, the call she experienced with council seemed as though they don’t have a system in place for ‘needle reporting’ and if they do, then not many staff are aware of it.

“I recall reading about the incident last year in the Moree Champion about the child receiving a needle stick injury,” she said.

“The majority of people in Moree would be aware that for the population there is a large problem with drug and alcohol use/abuse in the town.”

The woman commented on Moree hospital’s free needle dispensary, which she said at times was used so much, it had been seen empty, adding there was also a large yellow bin at the hospital to place used syringes.

“The majority of IV drug users do the ‘right’ thing and dispose of their used syringes safely. But with those drug users that inject and then share used syringes, comes the high risk of them then contracting blood borne diseases such as Hepatitis C and HIV,” she said.

“It just takes one syringe disposed of incorrectly to potentially harm someone, the risk not high, but the 12 weeks of waiting for test results to come back would be a living nightmare.”

Moree Plains Shire Council planning and development assessment manager, Daniel Boyce, said NSW Health estimated around 20 million needles and syringes used for self-injection ended up in local council waste and recycling services in the state each year, so it certainly represents a challenge for council as an organisation.

 “Moree council have taken a proactive approach to community sharps management, by endeavouring to reduce the number of sharps present in public spaces by providing appropriate disposal options such as sharps containers and proactive inspections of known hot spots by our open space staff who have the appropriate knowledge, training and equipment to remove sharps,” Mr Boyce said.

He said as well as conducting proactive inspections, open space staff will endeavour to respond to any specific incidents where sharps are found on public spaces.

“Only people with the appropriate knowledge and equipment should remove sharps,” he said.

“Sharps containers are provided in most public toilets in Moree and are regularly checked and replaced,

 “Council staff will not enter private property to remove sharps, but are able to supply containers to people who require them for the safe disposal of sharps.”

If you locate a syringe in a public space the council’s open space staff will attend to it. 

Customers can contact the council’s customer service centre on (02) 6757 3222 and the request will be logged with open space staff.