Exclusive | Building staff in NYCs richest zipcodes on guard after sharp rise in used needle stabbings as GLP-1 craze rages on

There’s a nasty new job hazard to building employees in NYC’s most pampered zip codes — and it’s lurking in the trash.Residents at one luxe Upper East Side address received a sharp written warning after one staffer was shocked to discover they’d been jabbed by someone’s used needle while bagging building trash — and it wasn’t the first time, according to AKAM Management, which handles the property.“As recently as yesterday, a staff member was pricked by a needle put down the compactor chute,” read the sternly worded letter seen by The Post.

“It is imperative that residents properly manage their household trash so that it’s properly disposed of without injuring staff or anyone else who may be managing trash,” the notice warned.The same building had been the site of another incident just months earlier — and it’s not the only elite address battling the menace, turns out.Official figures provided to The Post by the Department of Sanitation suggest the problem may be worsening, citywide.The agency recorded 25 needle-stick injuries among sanitation workers in 2022, 24 in 2023, 36 in 2024, and 46 in 2025.

Through the first five months of 2026 alone, the department had already logged 35 such injuries.While an agency rep said the department could not speak to conditions inside specific buildings, officials stressed that improperly discarded needles continue to pose a risk to workers handling the city’s trash.And those workers are hitting back publicly.Last month, longtime garbage hoister Mike Plotkin posted on his popular blog that “fifteen sanitation workers in my garage have been stuck with needles in the last fourteen months.”The rising risk comes as New Yorkers flock to injectable medications at home for everything from weight loss using trendy GLP-1s to fertility treatments, hormone replacement and wellness therapies.

​Roughly 12% of American adults now use GLP-1s, according to a recent Gallup survey.In the looks-obsessed Big...