Exclusive | NYC workers may be forced to clean up drug needles next to syringe exchange spots thanks to new bill

City health workers may be forced to collect used drug syringes that end up as litter near “needle exchange” spots across the Big Apple under a new bill unveiled Thursday.Council member Oswald Feliz’s new bill would require the city’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene to come up with a plan to pick up the hundreds of needles that are often tossed aside on sidewalks or parks after they’re picked up at city-funded mobile syringe distrubution centers.“Needle exchange programs can be life-saving, but we must ensure these programs are implemented responsibly,” said Feliz, who noted the exchanges don’t require users to hand in used needles before they get a new one.“Communities should not have to cope with discarded used needles in our parks, libraries, and even school playgrounds – creating unwelcoming and unsafe environments for entire communities,” Feliz added.The bill would require city health staff to work with providers of the city’s “syringe service programs” to develop a plan to pick up as many needles as they hand out even if they are not directly returned by drug users.Still, Torres, who lives in the Tremont neighborhood of Feliz’ Bronx district, said the used needles are so bad in Richman Park he won’t let his niece and nephew near the area.Tremont resident Isaiah Torres, 47, said there are so many used needles in Richman Park he won’t let his young niece and nephew near the greenspace.“I never walk through this park with them because you don’t know what you’ll see,” Torres said, though with an Arctic cold snap and snow on the ground they’ve been less present.“In the summertime it was really bad.

You couldn’t walk through without seeing a needle on the floor,” he said.   But Torres said he wouldn’t want to be the one who has to pick up the used needles.“That’s kind of crazy,” Torres told The Post.“I mean if you want to supply them then I guess you have to clean up after them, but you don’t ...