Sharps Container

To begin the design process to create a sharps container, our group brainstormed what material would work best considering the safety and environmental effect of our choice. We decided that cardboard was the best choice because it would be durable enough to prevent the sharps from poking through and cardboard is reasonably a better material to discard than a plastic or synthetic material because it would decompose better in the long run. After choosing cardboard, we began to diagram what the container should look like. Our first design had a smaller box suspended within a larger box, so that if the sharps did somehow poke through the first box, the outer shell would protect anyone or anything that came in contact with the container.

 


The picture to the left was a brainstorm for the support that the inner box would rest on. Although the inner box was in the original design, we decided that only one box was needed to safely contain the sharps.
After deciding that we only needed one box, we decided on the dimensions that would be big enough for the box. The box didn't need to be very large because the blades or sharps are very thin, and do not take up a lot of space. The dimensions of the box are 3.25 x 4 x 4 in. with a volume of the container is 52 in^3. We traced the outline of the box in a cross shape so that we could mostly fold the box and minimize the gluing, in order to make it more sturdy. Once it was cut out, we shaped it into a box and cut a slit on the top.

Once the box was totally glued together, we made a velcro cover for the slot so that none of the sharps could fall out.

The final product was painted and the velcro lid is on the container, so this is what it looks like.