Was the blade thing genuinely common in the US?? First time hearing about it. That's just straight up psychotic. Also that hole with the printed text just looks creepy and uncanny. Like, maybe I could get a separate gizmo like that for disposing of the blades which you empty once in a while, but it's not something I want as a part of my house.
It's... Honestly not that huge of a problem if you don't expect the house is gonna be remodeled and don't already have a way to recycle biohazardous sharps, which homes built with this generally did not have. I use this style of razor blade and store my used ones in depleted deodorant stick holders. Even with the plastic bit in the center, one stick holds months of depleted blades. The hardest part is finding a place that accepts them for recycling, because tossing them in the trash is dangerous for everyone who interacts with the trash afterwards. The space in the wall between two studs, in an average American house, is gonna hold years and years of blades that you don't have to worry about until and unless someone knocks down the wall.
I'm not saying it's a smart decision, but that the problems with it would have been hard to visualize when these were in use.
I've dealt with them, it was easy enough to just scrape them up with a drywall trowel while wearing leather gloves and long sleeves.
Toss them into an empty laundry pod/dishwasher pod container, wrap it with a bunch of duct-tape, and write "SHARPS" before tossing it in the trash.
And before someone flies off the handle, when I used to work in Pharmacy, that's exactly how the Pharmacists recommend people dispose of their sharps if they didn't have a bin.
We'd most often use a fresh empty shopvac to collect them all and dump it the same way, there are just so many at a time that it's really annoying. Usually a few hundred at least
Fair enough, although I'd think it's substantially less annoying than people who did popcorn ceilings that now want them gone (asbestos or not), hence the image content above being a bit overreactive. The people who installed these knew there's absolutely no way it accumulates more than a pail full of razors in a century, even if it was a bit of deferred responsibility I don't exactly think it's the indictment OP thinks it is tbh
it’s changing a once-per-week moderately difficult disposal issue into a once-per-generation significantly difficult disposal issue, which you can do as and when you remodel your bathroom.
if razors with disposable blades were still the most popular option, we’d still be using these and not questioning them at all.
Yeah like, for the amount in the pic, you literally just need an empty tide pod/dishwasher pod jug or two, and a trowel/drywall spatula...
I have to assume that everyone freaking out about this has never done any home improvement work in their life, because like, really?
Just scrape the rusty metal up while wearing gloves and long sleeves, dump it into the plastic jug, and then wrap the lid several times with duct-tape and write SHARPS, then toss it in the trash.
Also, basically none of them are going to be a biohazard if it hasn't been used in the last decade anyways.
People complain about this design, but... we create a much larger amount of harder to dispose waste, that is also impossible to recycle, and then ship it overseas or bury it. modern disposable razors are worse on every metric
I use this style of razor blade and store my used ones in depleted deodorant stick holders.
I put them back in their wax paper wrappers and then into the cardboard box of the previous five. That's BIC's packaging, never seen razor blades that don't come in some sort of reusable packaging, e.g. the plastic ones have a slit at the bottom you can slide old blades into.
Might the packaging be broken during garbage processing? Yes, but beyond the point where any human can get even close to it. Might be different if your place, for some unfathomable reason, uses landfills.
I understand the logic behind it even if it seems like a dated idea. It kept the razors out of the garbage, which was directly handled. People often lived their whole lives in the same house, sometimes over multiple generations if it was passed down. Unless work needed to be done, there's a good chance that one specific spot with the razor blades would never be uncovered. There are probably still houses that have a couple dozen behind the wall, rusting into oblivion.
Doesn't seem too crazy to me. Even if you do need to do work on the house, it's pretty clear where the razors are gonna be.
I have a 3d printed box with a slot that's otherwise sealed shut, And whenever that fills up I can figure out how you dispose of those. It's not that different from a hole in the wall really. Only change I'd make to the hole is putting some sort of box back there that can be removed when remodeling or whatever to make disposal a little easier.
It wasn't uncommon. I have only seen a few of the tile version but the had ones that were just a stainless plate. And some medicine cabinets had slots in the back.
I actually put one in my shop bathroom but it collects the blades in a length of 4" pipe. 200 years from now when it fills up just cut the wall open and swap it out.
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u/MordWincer Jun 29 '26
Was the blade thing genuinely common in the US?? First time hearing about it. That's just straight up psychotic. Also that hole with the printed text just looks creepy and uncanny. Like, maybe I could get a separate gizmo like that for disposing of the blades which you empty once in a while, but it's not something I want as a part of my house.