Patent ID: 8011507

Claim:
A method of collecting and disposing of sharps, the method comprising: collecting the sharps in a meltable sharps container having a bottom; providing a receptacle including a side wall and a bottom wall having respective interior surfaces defining a space, a plurality of recessed areas in the interior surface of the bottom wall, and a plurality of elevated areas on the interior surface of the bottom wall; placing the sharps container in the space of the receptacle so that the bottom of the sharps container is above or supported by the elevated areas; melting the sharps container in the receptacle such that as the sharps container melts, material from the sharps container flows into the recessed areas and the elevated areas hold the sharps above the recessed areas, so as to inhibit the sharps from protruding through the melted sharps container; removing the melted sharps container from the receptacle; and disposing of the melted sharps container and sharps.