How To Dispose Of Knives: What Is Dispose Of Means?  

Before you know how to dispose of knives, you should understand what Dispose of is.

“Dispose of” means get rid of by throwing away or giving or selling to someone else. If we want to chop vegetables or fruits or other things like cooks, we need a sharp knife. Every knife has its expired date. Sometimes our old knives become dull or turn rusty, so we need to throw away or dispose of our old knife and so that we can buy a new one. We cannot throw knives straight in the trash because if it’s dull or blunt, it may come with a potential injury. To get rid of the expedition to the emergency room, we need to dispose of knives safely.

What’s the Recommended Way to Dispose of Kitchen Knives Legally?

A lot of people don’t know what to do when their knives break or any kind of sharp tool breaks. They don’t know what to do with it and how to finalize it. There are different ways to dispose of knives. What is the easiest way of disposing of knives???

• Wrap it with newspaper or bubble wrap twice or three times.
   It will be safe from potential injury.
• Tape the whole knife to secure the wrap in place.
• Also, you can wrap it with duct tape. So the blade itself can’t come to the tape.
  • For more safety, you also can wrap it with cardboard. 
• Put the wrapping knives into a container like an old shoebox or puncture-proof plastic or metal container.
• Above the container label, it with “caution: sharp knives.”
• Drop it into the garbage.

Tips: without wrapping it, don’t throw it in the garbage. It may be harmful to garbage cleaners.

Salvaged Knives

Disposing knives depends on the severity of the damage. Sometimes knives get salvaged. Salvaged means blunt blade or slightly bent or a little bit of rust. If it’s happened, can we fix it??? Surprisingly “YES.” We can sharpen our blunt or salvaged knives at home with the help of whetstone or Honing steel. 

Tips: you can hold your knife at a 20-degree angle with a whetstone or honing steel and rubbing it straightly from upward to downward. For more details, check out how to sharpen knives?

If Any Alternative Methods of Disposal

Without wrapping them and throwing them into the trash, there are several ways to redefine them. Before disposal, you have to know about these ways.

Donate knives

It can happen that your knife isn’t unstable, but you want to buy a fresh set of knives. That’s why you want to dispose of it. In your way, it’s not usual, but for someone else, it can be usable. Donating it can help someone who wants to set up a new kitchen or take a look at an organization like Local scout troop or Goodwill, or Salvation Army.

Recycle knives

If your knives are made from good metal, you can recycle them. For recycling, you need to know the type of metal knives. If you don’t see the metal type, you can do a test. Take a magnet and place it above the knife. If it’s attractive, the metal type is ceramic. If it doesn’t, the kind of metal is stainless steel. Then find out your near scrap metal recyclers and give it to them.

Tips: Ceramic, Stainless steel, and Carbon steel are the three best metals for knives. These are lightweight knives, attractive and last for years.

Taking Care of Knives

If you want your knives to last long, you have to take care of them.

1. Just keep separate drawers or knife blocks in your kitchen.
2. Avoid any kind of hitting blade each other.
3. After using a knife, have it in soapy water, dry it, and put it back in the drawer or blocks.
4. It would be best if you sharped your knife daily with the use of honing steel or whetstone.

Tips: For more information, check out How to take proper care of knives?

Get Rid Of Rusty Knives

When we use a knife for cutting, our fingerprints get on the blade, and moisture will stick to it. After some time, the knife will get rusty. So, we need to keep a coat to protect knives from rust. We can use oil for it, but you will need to reapply every month because oil dries out. So, what’s the best method???? The best practice that we recommend is petroleum jelly. It will not dry out like oil will. It locks out all moisture from getting to the metal. So that knives cannot get rusty. 

Final Words:

We use our knives every day, so we need to clean them and store them in a safe place. It’s essential to use utensils for a long time. When you know how to dispose of knives properly, you must be very careful that anyone can be harmed. So, BE CAREFUL!