How can I reuse or recycle wiper blades?
We’ve had an email from Greg Charles:
I replace the windscreen wipers on my car quite regularly and hate having to just throw them away. I considered making a house window squeegy out of them but don’t know where to start.
I wouldn’t know where to start either (other than just lashing them to a pole and giving it a go) or if they would be angled right – I thought wiper blades usually had a small curve to them but could very easily be wrong.
Any advice or other suggestions?
(Photo by loyalrogue)
This is a tough one because the blades are worn and perhaps wouldn’t do a good job on squeegeeing. You could stuff them in window cracks to keep out drafts.
Similarly, you could afix the blades to the bottom of your shower door (if you have that kind of stand-up shower) to act as a gasket and water seal.
That’s the best I could come up with!
I never could figure out what to do with them. I removed the rubber blades and recyle the metal arms.
In my town we can go to the dump to recycle metals separately.
Could use it as a wiper in your shower to remove water from glass door and/or siding.
Or, simply beat your kids with them.
you could make lock picks out of the metal
I just replaced the blades on my 2002 Sunfire. First time. That little car is quite amazing: 200,000 km and not much wrong, not looking like it’s going to the scrap yard any time soon. Detroit is financially tied to the 4 year life cycle; I guess GM is putting itself out of biz with the reliability and durability of the Sunfire.
But to the point. It is just the rubber part that wears out, but you have to buy a whole blade. The metal part is just fine. Many years ago (many, many years ago) when I worked at a gas station all we replaced was the rubber part. Sumpin ain’t right here. I’ll trash the rubber and take the metal to recycling. But I should have had to pay for it in the first place.
John
we can still buy the replaceable rubber bits…so what to do with that rubber? it’s flexible and long enough to plait (to make longer peices), tie (use in the garden) and weave(*yay, maore shopping baskets!)…even make goth necklaces from.
Make a mobile out of them (like you hang over a baby’s crib). Since there is often a longer and a shorter one, attach hang the middle of the shorter one a few inches below the middle of the top one, strap them to the ceiling, and hang pictures or light-weight toys from them. Since there are some sharp parts, keep them well-out-of-reach of small children.
Building on Ashia’s comment, you could make a wind chime instead of a mobel. Use bamboo pieces for the chimes or leftover pieces of copper pipe. We did some plumbing work last week and have some unused copper pipe. I also replaced a wiper blade today. Those things and a little wire/drill/bit could put it all together quite nicely, I think.
Get a sand paper (grade “2000”), sand the blade’s rubber few times properly with some water, then your blade is ready for “reuse” on your glass :-)
For those of us with streamline recycling (where one plant sorts and recycles everything that is recyclable, usually 1,2,3,4,5, and 7 + papers, glass, aluminum) — can the entire wiper blade be put into the bin? It is plastic, rubber, and metal. Can rubber not be recycled?
Thanks
~don
since used plastic can be chiped into small pieces as raw material to be mold into new product,can this blade also do the same,maybe car rubber matt, floor matt, ext….can make money out of this product.don forget the metal and 2 pieces of stainless steel in the blade can be sold.by the way i thought of using the stainless steel piece to wave into matt as kitchen or bathroom ware
This particular use might be becoming less relevant, but in my high school photography class we used them in our dark room to wipe water and chemicals off prints as they went through the developing process. They worked nicely for this purpose, and I imagine there could be some similar uses out there.
weapons
take out of the rubber and sharpen the edge where that rubber ran through
you now hnave two katana like weapons that you can store in your car for protection
if the police ever search your car they look like ordinary wiper blades