Residential Sharps Collection Program Grant

The Residential Sharps Collection Program, funded by the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency, offers $600,000 to local governments for the collection, storage, and disposal of household sharps. Eligible costs include advertising, educational materials, and transportation fees. Each local government can receive up to $35,000 to ensure safe disposal practices, enhancing community health and environmental safety. This initiative aims to facilitate proper sharps disposal and reduce risks associated with improper handling.

The FY26 Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) announces the availability of $600,000 in funding from the Illinois Solid Waste Management Fund (SWMF), administered by the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (Illinois EPA or Agency) Materials Management and Compliance Section (MMCS). The SWMF provides funding for conducting household waste collection and disposal programs. See 415 ILCS 5/22.15(i). Sharps collected from private citizens are a household waste.
Illinois EPA MMCS intends to reimburse units of local government that operate a sharps collection station, as defined in Section 3.458 of the Illinois Environmental Protection Act, for expenses incurred in collection, storing, and disposing of used sharps. Eligible expenses include costs for advertising sharps collection stations, costs for educational materials focused on proper disposal of sharps, costs to obtain collection containers for use by individual residents (if not otherwise available from the Agency), collection receptacles to store sharps at the sharps collection station, mobilization fees assessed by an appropriately permitted potentially infectious medical waste (PIMW) transporter to pick up collected sharps, and disposal fees for the collected sharps. Each unit of local government is eligible for the actual costs of sharps collection and disposal, up to $35,000.00 per funding opportunity.
The projects to be funded are:

• Reimbursement for actual costs associated with the collection and disposal of sharps from a sharps collection station operated by a unit of local government.