As Burlington contends with a worsening drug crisis, city councilors are looking for ways to address one of its most visible symptoms: syringe litter. Burlington city councilors on Monday unanimously approved a resolution that asks the city’s Board of Health to study the issue of improperly discarded needles, including whether a long-running needle-exchange program is working as intended. City Councilor Evan Litwin (D-Ward 7), the resolution's lead sponsor, said the study is a step toward addressing safety concerns among custodial workers, landscapers and trash haulers who are at risk of needle sticks. He noted that several city entities, including the Parks Commission, have already started researching needle disposal in other cities. "What we're hoping to achieve here is to centralize a lot of the good work that's already been happening," Litwin said. "I know our mayor, my Progressive colleagues, my Democratic colleagues, all share a desire to see a clean, safe Burlington." [content-3] Considered a barometer of the city’s drug crisis, needle litter has caused increasing concern in Burlington. From 2012 to 2020, the city-run app SeeClickFix counted about 40 complaints per year about discarded needles. That number skyrocketed to 300 in 2021 — and to nearly 750 in the first nine months of 2023. The majority of needles in Burlington come from Howard Center’s Safe Recovery, a syringe exchange program that hands out 20,000 clean needles per month. Such programs are proven to help curb the spread of transmissible disease such as HIV and hepatitis. But Howard Center staff are seeing fewer needles returned in recent years, according to the resolution, an issue Litwin said is worth studying. [content-2] The resolution directs the Board of Health to research how Burlington’s current syringe exchange could be improved, possibly by mirroring programs in other cities, such as Boston. A proposal there would offer payment and job training to people with substance-use disorder who turn in dirty needles. A similar buyback initiative was approved last week by city councilors in Portland, Maine. Celia Bird, who chairs the Burlington Board of Health, spoke in favor of the resolution during the meeting’s public forum. "This addresses an important impact of substance-use disorder in our community. This a real and urgent issue which is impacting all of our community members in some way," she said. "We know that much more can be done." The board's study is due back to the council in February 2025…