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Eco-Friendly Blades

Which are the most eco-friendly blades?

My favorite blade is the Derby Extra, but it comes in the plastic 5-pack. (And the Earth prefers paper to plastic.) The Feather comes in the plastic box too. I'm not sure about the Crystals. The Dorco 300ST and the Personna Platinum (Israeli) both use cardboard boxes. (And that makes the Earth smile.)

Of course, plastic is recycleable. But paper is best. =)

Thanks,
Christopher
 
I may disagree. All the synthetic hones and stropping pastes and stropping paste tubes and poly-whatever synthetic strops (not to mention the genuine leather strops that necessitate slash and burn deforestation to build grazing grounds for innocent pre-slaughtered animals) are a MUCH larger taxation on the planet.

The safety razor is probably the most eco-friendly way to shave.

And the cardboard box is the cream of the (sustainable) crop.

IMHO, that is.

Me
 
I may disagree. All the synthetic hones and stropping pastes and stropping paste tubes and poly-whatever synthetic strops (not to mention the genuine leather strops that necessitate slash and burn deforestation to build grazing grounds for innocent pre-slaughtered animals) are a MUCH larger taxation on the planet.

Not if you buy used or vintage...that would be recycling!
 
I may disagree. All the synthetic hones and stropping pastes and stropping paste tubes and poly-whatever synthetic strops (not to mention the genuine leather strops that necessitate slash and burn deforestation to build grazing grounds for innocent pre-slaughtered animals) are a MUCH larger taxation on the planet.

The safety razor is probably the most eco-friendly way to shave.

And the cardboard box is the cream of the (sustainable) crop.

IMHO, that is.

Me

Not to make too much of it, but I'd have to disagree with your assessment. Synthetic stones are made largely from ceramics and metal, neither of which are using resources that are scarse, and one of which should be recyclable. That's not to say that there isn't a lot of energy involved in their manufacture, but they're also (pretty much) one-time items.

The synthetic strops and the paste tubes are indeed plastics, but the turnover rate for them is exceedingly low. You're not exactly buying them often. Any DE user whose blades of choice come in plastic will use far more per year than a straight razor user.

As for the leather strops, I can only say that deforestation for the purpose of grazing land is bad, but it's not the leather industry that's driving it; it's the food industry. I would definitely prefer to see less of it, but so long as there are cattle raised for meat, you might as well make the most of the whole animal.

I totally respect your opinion, and I don't know whether mine is right. That's just how I see it.

Back to your original question, I'm pretty sure that the Dorco blades come in cardboard.
 
Not if you buy used or vintage...that would be recycling!

Actually, that would be re-USING, which is MUCH better than recycling! So you have a point. (Although I wonder how many vintage stropping pastes and poly-whatever synthetic strops are actually vintage.)

I guess it depends on how far we travel down the line. All the syntheitcs manufacturing is taxing on the Earth, and from what I've read the leather industry is one of the most toxic polluting industries on the planet. Plus the more products involved, the more plants and packaging and everything else. Ugh!

Maybe it's an either/or scenario.

However, since I prefer the DE shave, I'll focus on the most eco-friendly DE blade.

I like this thread, it's brought up some good thoughts.

Thanks,
Christopher
 
Back to your original question, I'm pretty sure that the Dorco blades come in cardboard.

This is an interesting question. I think we should also add in the carbon that is used to transport these across the ocean into the equation. That being said the American made Personna's would probably have the smallest carbon footprint to those of us in the USA, but they come in a metal container.
 
Actually, that would be re-USING, which is MUCH better than recycling! So you have a point. (Although I wonder how many vintage stropping pastes and poly-whatever synthetic strops are actually vintage.)

Several folks have purchased vintage strops on e-bay and reconditioned them using nothing more than a good leather cleaner and some neat's foot oil.

If you use hones, there's no need for pastes.
 
I guess the next question is what impact do the individual blade factories have?

Indeed. Given various environmental regulations, a US or European blade factory is likely to be considerably less polluting than one in a lot of other places. (Not sure about Israel, since their personnas came up.) The carbon footprint that results from transporting them from wherever is a fair point. But I would suggest that the amount of fuel needed to transport a lifetime supply of blades from the furthest possible place is probably about the same as that required to transport you to to work and back once.....

-Mo
 
Several folks have purchased vintage strops on e-bay and reconditioned them using nothing more than a good leather cleaner and some neat's foot oil.

If you use hones, there's no need for pastes.

Good point.

(But Neat's foot oil comes from cows shins...or something like that. Which brings us back to the whole slash and burn deforestation topic. And though it may be officially perpetuated by the food industry, that's who supplies the vast majority of leather and other commercial cow parts such as shins, etc. It's all a crazy mixed-up game and it makes me want to scream.)

On the flipside...it's all evil. I'm just trying to find the lesser evil.

Thanks,
Christopher
 
Which are the most eco-friendly blades?

My favorite blade is the Derby Extra, but it comes in the plastic 5-pack. (And the Earth prefers paper to plastic.) The Feather comes in the plastic box too. I'm not sure about the Crystals. The Dorco 300ST and the Personna Platinum (Israeli) both use cardboard boxes. (And that makes the Earth smile.)

Of course, plastic is recycleable. But paper is best. =)

Thanks,
Christopher

You know how many trees had to die to make your paper boxes? :rolleyes:
 
You know how many trees had to die to make your paper boxes? :rolleyes:

Yeah, commercially farmed pulpwood trees....

I know that was tongue in cheek, but just saying. I don't feel the least bit bad about the trees being cut down to make paper. Now, the land being converted into pulpwood plantations.... That is another matter. Not to mention paper factories are not the friendliest things in the world....

-Mo
 
I think there are several factors that need to be considered when discussing the ecological impact of razor blades.

  1. blade manufacturing process
  2. type of packaging
  3. reuse or recycling of blades and packaging
  4. transportation impact
  5. disposal impact

From what I've read, the blade manufacturing process involves the use of both chemical solvents to clean the blades, and a lot of electricity to electrically deposit the finish onto the blade's surface. Also keep in mind that all this metal must be mined, and then the ore refined before the blade can be made. That adds to the environmental impact.

Any type of packaging will have some impact, but you can recycle cardboard. Plastic can also be recycled but it is more difficult since you tend to store your used blades in the packaging.

DE blades are not reusable as far as I know. They are thrown out. Steel can be recycled, but I don't know if most recycle centers are willing to collect blades. I'll have to check on that.

Transportation to market also adds to the environmental impact. This is true with everything. So if you want to lessen its impact you can use blades made near you. In the U.S. that would be Personna.

Finally, since blades are thrown out they take up space in landfills and don't degrade. Here at least we can say that they take up less space than cartridges. However they still end up in the same place.

When you consider all that I think its pretty safe to say that shaving with an SE is the most ecological way to shave despite having the added cost of a hone and strop. I don't use an SE, but my understanding is that you can use natural hones made of stone, and avoid the use of diamond pastes. Also the leather for strops is available anyway since cattle is raised for meat.
 
man-U makes a good syntetic, the problem is that its made from petroleum products,
theres also the issue of the blade, the old DE blades were stainless steel or carbon steel, but modern DE blades have teflon, ceramic, platinium, chromium, steel, and those layered metals might be harder to recycle then normal stainless,
 
theres also the issue of the blade, the old DE blades were stainless steel or carbon steel, but modern DE blades have teflon, ceramic, platinium, chromium, steel, and those layered metals might be harder to recycle then normal stainless,

It's just a microscopic coating over stainless steel. Pretty sure does not impact ability to recycle. Best idea I've seen for recycling blades is to cut a thin slot in the top of a steel can, drain out the contents (and rinse) and dispose of your blades into it. That way, you can just toss the whole blade bank into the recycling when it eventually fills up, and the blades are contained for safety.

-Mo
 
Good point.

(But Neat's foot oil comes from cows shins...or something like that. Which brings us back to the whole slash and burn deforestation topic. And though it may be officially perpetuated by the food industry, that's who supplies the vast majority of leather and other commercial cow parts such as shins, etc. It's all a crazy mixed-up game and it makes me want to scream.)

On the flipside...it's all evil. I'm just trying to find the lesser evil.

Thanks,
Christopher

Ah, but are you considering that cows are not slaughtered specifically for their foot oil? And that by using this byproduct of the meat/hide industry, you are helping to prevent waste?
 
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