Blade recycling..too good to be true?

[puffinshart]

I have come across (and broke down and bought) this Blade Bank for a moderately hefty price. They are claiming:
1) We can send them blade bank full of blades and they will recycle them properly
2) Send another blade bank for free to fill up and resend it to them for recycling

From their site:

well kept's blade bank is the perfect place to safely store your used safety razor blades. Once full, send it back to us so we can recycle it for you AND send you a new blade bank!
We often get questions about how to deal with old blades. While they are recyclable, due to how sharp they are, they cannot be recycled in your curb-side pickup. Scrap metal places are happy to take them, but this is obviously not the most convenient.... we’ve been working hard to solve this issue and finally have!
the blade bank measurements are: 7.5 cm x 4.3 cm x 1.6 cm and it is made of stainless steel
* Please ensure the box is, in fact, full before shipping it to us. Box should fit 80-100 blades.

Is this a scam or might be legit? ..I want to believe

 

[Wogus]

I want to believe the blade-banks themselves are made from the blades they recycle.

 

[rbscebu]

Sound like a great idea but I'd have trouble trying to get my worn-out straight razor blades through that thin slot. I wonder if they have a straight razor model.

 

[Bobbers]

Not for me. I have a space just perfect to slip a used double edge, single edge or injector blade between my vanity counter top and the filler space of my cabinet. The blade falls in the void which is about 3" wide x 21" deep x 34" high. It will take a life time to fill it.

 

[DCP]

There is a Feather brand blade disposal case on Amazon for $9. I've had mine for over three years already. Still not full!

Sent from my HD1907 using Tapatalk

 

[Mike M]

I bought a tin moneybox that will not get filled in my lifetime, as for disposal I guess my family can bury it with me.

 

[nemo]

I can recycle mine with steel metal scrap I recycle and get paid for it. Sure it's a couple pennies but that thing is $26 and shipping each time.

No.

 

[Rhody]

Last time I looked razor blades were not recyclable. Similar to medical sharps. But I guess they take it to metal scrap recycling?

 

[santamariasteve]

My method of disposing of used blades is to place them is a plastic vitamin jar with a screw-on top. When full (2 years?) I go to a remote spot in my garden with a spade and dig a narrow hole at least 18 inches deep and dump the blades in. I fill the hole with dirt.

I bring the empty plastic jar back into the house and start over again.

I'd be interested in your comments.

 

[Ivo4u2]

Ok it is a nice travel tin (but blades can be inserted under most blade dispensers for that).

ecological wise
Take an old paint tin (or an empty new one). Cut a slid in the top and use it as blade bank or fill it up from your treasured blade bank.
When full….
Add a little water.
Put it in the oven 60min at 100 deg C. Be aware of some funk.
Let it cool down everything is now sterile. Dispose as metal waste. If needed put a sticker on it so your kin nows how to do it.

overhere you can get sharps boxes at the pharmacies and return them over there for disposal.

sending things with post is bad for environment and there is no control of the disposal

 

[emily666]

Mine go in an empty tin,squash it closed and into the metal recycling bin

 

[rbscebu]

With scrap steel currently fetching about USD 220 per tonne (1,000kg), 100 typical DE blades would get you about 3¢ or 3,300 blades to the USD 1.

 

[Andris83]

I think I read in another lengthy thread that DE blades are not worth recycling. Because: they might be a PIA for the workers handling them. Also disposing of them without a container anywhere (ground, bin, recycling, bathroom wall) isn't a good idea. Think about the ones that might stumble upon them.
So I just use a blade bank, seal it and bin it when full. I had a feather blade bank that got about 1/2 full in a year when I got rid of it when we moved. Now I just use a big vitamin container. I think it will be good for at least 3 years

 

[BobbyB]

Last time I looked razor blades were not recyclable. Similar to medical sharps. But I guess they take it to metal scrap recycling?

That is why I purchased a medical sharps disposal container. This one cost me all of $2.96 (USD). I won't fill this one in the rest of my lifetime.

 

[luvmysuper]

My method of disposing of used blades is to place them is a plastic vitamin jar with a screw-on top. When full (2 years?) I go to a remote spot in my garden with a spade and dig a narrow hole at least 18 inches deep and dump the blades in. I fill the hole with dirt.

I bring the empty plastic jar back into the house and start over again.

I'd be interested in your comments.

Picking a designated area and burying thin, small metal plates in the ground is not a bad idea in my opinion. Rust will quickly eat these up into nothingness.
The reason they survive for decades in a wall is that's a pretty good, dry preservation compartment.
I'd be surprised to see 100 or 200 blades buried last longer than a year before they essentially disappear, particularly if they were not clumped together, but spread out a little bit to allow rust, chemical erosion/corrosion and bacteria to work on all surfaces.

 

[BigJ]

I employ a metal ‘blade bank’ that holds several hundred blades. When full, it will go is the trash.

 

[Rhody]

Picking a designated area and burying thin, small metal plates in the ground is not a bad idea in my opinion. Rust will quickly eat these up into nothingness.
The reason they survive for decades in a wall is that's a pretty good, dry preservation compartment.
I'd be surprised to see 100 or 200 blades buried last longer than a year before they essentially disappear, particularly if they were not clumped together, but spread out a little bit to allow rust, chemical erosion/corrosion and bacteria to work on all surfaces.

Until you then hear the backyard hobbyist with a metal detector who inadvertently came in your yard screaming bloody Murder.

 

[luvmysuper]

Until you then hear the backyard hobbyist with a metal detector who inadvertently came in your yard screaming bloody Murder.

That'll learn him not to be trespassing!

Truthfully, he'd probably be screaming bloody murder long before he got to the blades due to the 200 pound mastiff back there.

 

[ERS4]

I think I read in another lengthy thread that DE blades are not worth recycling. Because: they might be a PIA for the workers handling them. Also disposing of them without a container anywhere (ground, bin, recycling, bathroom wall) isn't a good idea. Think about the ones that might stumble upon them.

So I just use a blade bank, seal it and bin it when full. I had a feather blade bank that got about 1/2 full in a year when I got rid of it when we moved. Now I just use a big vitamin container. I think it will be good for at least 3 years

Picking a designated area and burying thin, small metal plates in the ground is not a bad idea in my opinion. Rust will quickly eat these up into nothingness.
The reason they survive for decades in a wall is that's a pretty good, dry preservation compartment.
I'd be surprised to see 100 or 200 blades buried last longer than a year before they essentially disappear, particularly if they were not clumped together, but spread out a little bit to allow rust, chemical erosion/corrosion and bacteria to work on all surfaces.

Cans rust quickly in moist acidic soil, but it takes more time to completely transform into dust; studies have pointed out that it is at least 50 years; beverage cans can take two hundred years.
Stainless steel blades will take more time.

If one day future generations of house owners (such as sons or grandsons) want to transplant trees, or build a fish pond/swimming pool in the yard, they are likely to be injured.

Handling the blade correctly takes less time and effort than digging a hole. Just wrap the jar with the blade in tape and write on it that it is a waste blade (to avoid unintentional opening by the recycling staff), and then discard it or send it to a medical recycling unit.

 

[luvmysuper]

Mine go in the trash packaged.
My observation regarding burial as a possible disposal path is not that they need to necessarily be reduced to dust, but rather that they need to be reduced to not sharp.
I'm quite happy to send them off via the trash to the landfill where someone else will bury them.