Look I am a father and not a tree huger but try to help where I can; does anyone know of a service that would take a jar or more of our used blades, melt them down, and make new blades or something else out of them?
Recycling
- Thread starter fingerguy
- Start date
I've been putting my blades in a drained and cleaned broth can with a slit cut in it. When it's full (way down the road). I'll simply put a piece of tape over the slit and toss it into a recycling bin.
I just toss mine in the regular recycling bin.
Yep they recycle. If you had a bunch of scrap metal you might want to take it to your local metal recycler. You would have to have many pounds of used blades to make it worth your while though!
I would just toss em in the recycle bin.
I would just toss em in the recycle bin.
First of all, absolutely no reason to be embarrassed for an interest in recycling - we need to get over this idea of "treehuggers" fanatics being the face of recycling 
I follow the same process: soup can with slit, into which I drop the used blade. When full -- 2020?? --, I would put some tape over the top, and add it to the recycle bin. Done.
I follow the same process: soup can with slit, into which I drop the used blade. When full -- 2020?? --, I would put some tape over the top, and add it to the recycle bin. Done.
Fathers should be tree huggers, no?
Ames, Iowa is one of those locations where everything goes in the garbage and it gets sorted at a central facility for things that can be recycled or burned at the power plant.
When I am down at the house I just toss the blades in with the tin cans being recycled. So far I've only done that once with the blades inside a metal container from vintage Gillette blades.
When I am down at the house I just toss the blades in with the tin cans being recycled. So far I've only done that once with the blades inside a metal container from vintage Gillette blades.
I use a metal blade bank ($1 from WCS). It is almost full, when it is full I'll just toss it in the recycle bin.
Yip, just toss it. It is smart to really tape the slit closed so that blades don't come flying out. I also have "Razor Bank" painted on my can and will add "steel" to it when throwing the can out.
The blades will probably be dumped as they have penetrated human skin, touched blood and fluids, etc. And they are obviously dangerous to handle. In a hospital these would go into the HazMat disposable system. Because there would be so little metal to retrieve, I don't see their value to commerce.
Well intended but probably wasted energy.
Well intended but probably wasted energy.
How long does it take you guys to fill a broth can with blades? 30 years? 60 years?
This is true...Ideally they should be disposed of in a sharps container and treated as medical waste. However, since that is not really feasible in the home setting unless you work at a hospital, doctors office, etc. it's probably best to do as mentioned and place them in a container and seal the container up when it's full and toss them. No real harm in tossing them in the recycle, depending on how the recycle is sorted they may or may not make their way to the scrap metal pile.
It's a nice idea, but realistically they are just going to get thrown out. I worked at a recycling center and when sorting through stuff we would throw out anything that was potentially dangerous. Used blades are technically biohazardous medical waste and should be disposed of accordingly. If you do not have access to a proper way of disposing of them, it's perfectly fine to tape them up in a can and throw it in the garbage, but please do not try to recycle it. Someone will have to handle it and as soon as they realize what it is, it has to be disposed of properly. No one is going to cut your can open to get the blades inside. They're not even the same material, cans are made out of tin coated steel and would have to be processed separately anyways. We had very strict rules about how to handle biohazards and it was really just a pain when someone sent one through. There are websites that tell you to toss them in the recycling bin, but those are written by people that have no clue what happens at the recycling center.
I apologize if this offends anyone, but it is honestly just the truth. It's not like our blades are very wasteful anyways, think about how many blades you could make from the material it takes to make a soup can. If you want to make a difference, I can guarantee you that there are other parts of your life you could work on to offset the waste generated by your shaving hobby.
I apologize if this offends anyone, but it is honestly just the truth. It's not like our blades are very wasteful anyways, think about how many blades you could make from the material it takes to make a soup can. If you want to make a difference, I can guarantee you that there are other parts of your life you could work on to offset the waste generated by your shaving hobby.
- Thread starter
- #14
If they are one of those people that I see posting they change the blade every 2 shaves, I doubt it would take longer than a few years.
I actually was thinking something along those lines. The people in charge act they know everything but it's the people that are in it that do. That is why when an IT manager finally gets the nerve to ask me how he can find out where the problems are, I will tell them ask the people that are really low on the totem-pole. They are the ones that really see/feel/experience what is going on.
Last edited:
That's a little bit of a bummer--I'd hoped the blades would be recyclable, but what you say makes sense (especially with the hazmat concerns). I had this vision of the recycling being separated at the station and the can o' blades simply being tossed into the bin with the rest of the metal. Well at least I can keep the sanitation workers safe by keeping the used blades in a can.
http://www.martorusa.com/Blade-Recycling-Program
these guys recycle blades...says no needles allowed but doesn't say no DE blades.
While it's true that in hospitals and universities blades are considered hazardous materials that go in sharps bins and are then incinerated, I don't know what most municipal regulations say about home razor blades.
I know a lot of cites (seattle for instance) have automated recycling machines that sort out all the materials so if your city has that, the blade bank would be pulled out by magnets and go into the steel recycling. I doubt they are checking for little cans full of blades in thousands of tons of steel.
these guys recycle blades...says no needles allowed but doesn't say no DE blades.
While it's true that in hospitals and universities blades are considered hazardous materials that go in sharps bins and are then incinerated, I don't know what most municipal regulations say about home razor blades.
I know a lot of cites (seattle for instance) have automated recycling machines that sort out all the materials so if your city has that, the blade bank would be pulled out by magnets and go into the steel recycling. I doubt they are checking for little cans full of blades in thousands of tons of steel.
There is also the option of Sharps by mail. You can buy them online, you could throw your blades directly in, or just throw the full blade banks in if you don't want a red bio-hazard bin in you bathroom. The blades would be disposed of properly as far as bio-hazard goes. I don't know what happens with all the melted down metal, I believe they are required to incinerate all the bio-hazard. With the amount of sharps and blades around going to these facilities I would imagine there is a lot of slag that needs to go bye bye. Maybe somebody here can enlighten us as to what happens after the incineration.
I see they sell workshop style SE blades but not DE blades. I'm guessing they're thinking industrial "Home Depot" SE work blades...not shaving...for recycle. And it says no bio hazard items.
Last edited:
Here in my city the fire department has implemented a program for the safe disposal of diabetic insulin syringes. They have a container for used supplies at the stations. That includes me, so I put my syringes and razor blades in a one gallon plastic milk jug. I then swing by one of four fire stations and drop it off when full. The fire department then takes them to the hospital where they are disposed of as hazardous medical waste. It's an excellant service provided by the department, and is very much appreciated.
That's a great service... I'm going to check if my city has something similar. If not, I'm going to suggest it.
*** EDIT ***
Just did some surfing on my city's hazardous disposal site. It advises that most pharmacies accept such things as hypodermic needles, scalpels, and other sharp medical biohazards. Next time you're at the local walmart, let the pharmacist know. They should give you a biohazard container which you can fill with used blades and have the pharmacy properly dispose of them.
Last edited:
