What is a Blade Bank?

What is a blade bank anyway??? Whenever we explain the blade bank and our safety razor recycling program, everyone always goes “Ohh that makes total sense! How cool!” So, here I am to fully explain the blade bank to you.

The EPA estimates that 2 billion razors are thrown away each year, in the US alone. Most plastic disposable razors have the blades connected into the head of the razor, making them impossible to recycle.

If everyone in Vancouver discarded one razor cartridge a week it would equate to approximately 2497 tonnes per year – that’s equivalent to a herd of 713 elephants – that’s A LOT of elephants !!

One of the main reasons why we love the safety razor is that you are able to recycle the blades since there is no plastic on them.

So how do you actually recycle them? Since they are ‘sharps’ you can’t recycle them in your regular curbside recycling. Most communities will have scrap metal recycling which is where you can drop off your blades and recycle them – check with your local recycling regulations. What we recommend, if you are going to do this, is collecting them in a small metal tin and then bringing them in when you have a bunch.

Instead of this seemingly long process, and in order to make your life even easier, we created the well kept blade recycling program:

Step 1: After using a safety razor blade pop it into the blade bank (you should change your blade every 5-7 shave depending on the coarseness of your hair)

Step 2: Continue to fill the blade bank with used safety razor blades until it is full (it will fit approximately 100 blades)

Step 3: Send the full blade bank back to us (contact us to get the most recent shipping address)

Step 4: We will recycle it for you AND send you a new empty blade bank for free

We decided to make the blade bank out of stainless steel so that it can be recycled with the blades. For safety measures we made it completely sealed so you don’t have to worry about blades falling out. Making it a safe place to store used blades as there is no way to open it up or get them out.

We are forever growing and evolving and hope one day we can fully close the loop by making the blade bank out of recycled blades!

Thanks for helping us close the loop on our safety razor blades :)
And of course, let us know if you have any comments or questions!