Disposing of used scalpel/knife blades

[PeteW]

A random question, but what are we doing with used blades from scalpels, craft knives, etc? When I worked for a living the various art departments used a lot of these and there were always several 'sharps' disposal boxes around (although I've no idea what happened when they filled up).

I'm comfortable re-sharpening the bigger blades from Swann-Morton knives, but don't really know what to do with those slivers of snap-off craft blades. Throwing them in the wastebin isn't good, and sandwiching them between layers of thick card wrapped in masking tape doesn't seem much better.

So what do you do?

[guest311]

try a word with your local surgery, they may be willing to let you have a sharps bin, and they last years

[railsquid]

and sandwiching them between layers of thick card wrapped in masking tape

I do this, and leave them in the refuse collection area outside my house every second Friday in the month with a note that it contains sharp metal, and the refuse truck which picks up everything which is non-burnable or non-recyclable takes them away (though where they end up is a complete mystery).

However you'll have to move to Japan to take advantage of this.

[Snowwolflair]

If you do dispose of them in a waste bin do not disguise or hide them.  Loose they will be machine handled and magnetically sorted where as inside tape or cardboard they are likely to be human handled and that is dangerous.  Similarly do not put in a recycle bin that may be hand sorted.

A sharps bin is ideal.

[daffy]

Went to my local household waste recycling centre a month or so back, with a whole selection of 'sharps', including old hacksaw blades, Stanley Knife blades, scalpel blades, bent and headless pins, and even a rotary saw blade past it's best.

Asked one of the guys in the hi-vis jackets working there if they had a special disposal point for. He said: "Yeah, I'll take 'em for ya."

He then threw the whole lot into the 'Metals' skip. Not quite what I had in mind, so I hope nobody gets to sort that skip by hand.

[crewearpley40]

every now and then i spot a poster which says  one can drop your unwanted knives here

I took my collection of unwanted modelling knives / disposable blades to my local police station and handed them over in a container, opened the lid and explained this. The Officer kindly added them to a collection members of the public were handing over and came back with my empty secure box which i use for taking tins, paper etc to he recycling point. just a thought

[guest311]

you have a police station that is OPEN 

[crewearpley40]

only certain times and the notice says collection at certain times
public invited to drop off unwanted items at this day, this hour
and tells us what is required of us, cannot remember exact words

[guest311]

sounds like here, open a couple of hours a day, a couple of days a week IIRC.
otherwise a phone in a yellow box, if you can get an answer.

but like the non emergency number, loads of messages from various idiots about how dedicated they are to mprovide a superb service, but it doesn't seem to extend to having enough people to answer the phones ...

select option 1 for murder, option 2 for burglary, option 3 for rape etc.

[port perran]

Around here most of the public toilets have disposal slots for sharps.

[crewearpley40]

well .... thats my suggestion to help pete w - as have others contributed with theirs

[jpendle]

Here is Colorado. my Dialysis Nurse said that it was OK to dispose of used (non contaminated) needles by dropping them in a plastic milk bottle, putting the top back on when full, and leaving in the bin.

Whether or not that would be OK in the UK I have no idea.

Regards,

John P

[RailGooner]

Metal blades go with the rest of my metal household waste, into the recycling bin. The only prep I do is to ensure they are clean, as per the local authorities instructions. If they can't be cleaned, they go in the landfill bin.

In over two decades of doing this, I'm not aware of any incidents of lacerated waste technicians at the local dump.

[ntpntpntp]

I remove the sharp edges with a grinding stone in my mini-drill, then put them in the metal recycling.

[stevewalker]

(Un)luckily, as my wife has Rheumatoid Arthritis, she has weekly injections, so we do have a sharps bin. I have never worried too much in the past though, as the bins could have broken items with sharp edges, broken glass and all-sorts, so council workers should already be handling the contents with full protection.