We’ve had an email from Victoria, saying:

My grandfather has moved out of the house and left a very large collection of used razor blades. For what reason he never seemed to throw them out and just let them pile up in a bathroom cabinet. Can this item be recycled?

I’m presuming Victoria means safety razor type blades – not fully disposable razors or straight blades.

If they’re just metal (without plastic casing) then I suspect they can be recycled in the same way as other steel (most household waste sites have special containers for scrap metal) but what about reuses?

(Photo by iannai)

After the disposable razor post the other week, I decided to make a concerted effort to avoid using them in the future and stick to using my rechargeable electric razor instead – and then, of course, said electric razor died.

I don’t know if the battery just stopped holding charge or if something mechanical went wrong with it suddenly but either way, it’s now an ex-razor.

Any suggestions for ways I can recycle or reuse the razor itself – presumably a battery as well as the actual shaving bit – or the related charger? With the growing popularity of rechargeable batteries in electronic devices, I suspect there is a growing mountain of electrical adaptors with proprietary connectors that are no longer needed once the device has died or is replaced because it’s the wrong shade of chrome for this week’s fashion. So any ideas what to do with them?

I use plastic disposable razors. I admit it but I’m not happy about it.

I don’t use them that much – just for my armpits say, once a week (since I’m not that hairy and/or bothered) – but it still seems incredibly wasteful.

I’ve tried using ones where you just replace the blade – but they always go rusty really quickly and so work out really expensive for the amount I use them – and I have a rechargeable electric razor for my legs – but that doesn’t work well on my pits for some reason – so I’m left with the disposable ones. Boo.

Any suggestions for reuses or ways to recycle them? Or other ideas?

(Photo by chris2k)