Storing and Disposing of Sewing Needles
Leah RybakDescription
Leah Rybak shows you how to safely and properly dispose of broken needles. Find out how useful old medicine bottles or small shampoo containers can be when storing new needles or disposing old and broken ones.
Related Article: Essential Sewing Tools and Supplies
If you've ever broken a sewing needle or needed to dispose of one in a proper way, I know that sometimes it's hard to kind of think of what's the best way to do that. So we have a great example here for you. What you can do is use extra pill bottle containers. We've all been sick. We all have those kind of lying around the house and it's a great way to safely dispose of your needles. So what I did is I just put in broken needles anything like that in here, so that I can just throw that in the trash bag and it won't rip through the trash bag. It won't injure me in any way. I won't get my finger pricked and it will be a safe way to dispose of those needles. A great alternative use for these pill containers or any other kind of household containers you have around the house, you can get tiny little shampoo bottles from hotels and rinse those out and use them as well, is that you can label them and use them to store needles that are good to go as well. So, you know, you buy your needles from the store and open up the container and look you pour it open to grab some needles and they all come flying out. The best thing to do is to put them in the container with a lid that closes, just like this, and you can label them appropriately for your different kinds of needles. Basically look to your kitchen cabinets, your kitchen cupboards, or your medicine cabinet for a great way to not only dispose of your sewing needles, but also store them.
Putting broken sewing needles in a plastic pill container with a child-proof lid is one way to recycle them safely so they don't harm the people sorting recyclables. The steel in sewing needles is recyclable. Putting anything sharp (sewing needles, nails, screws, razor blades, etc.) "naked" in your recycling bin could harm the people sorting the recyclable materials along a conveyor belt.
I like using TicTac containers for storing used needles because they’re very easy to open and close.
Placing new needles in something where they will freely move around is bad, the points can get damaged and then they're useless. Never remove NEW sewing machine needles from their packages to put into containers, it's impossible to know the different TYPES, e.g. universal, stretch, jeans, etc. by sight.
Thank you for the great idea. Disposing of needles and pins have always been a worry. I would weave in folded TP, but keeping a bottle around for them is so much more satisfactory. Also for the storing of open needle packs. I do suggest putting a bit of cotton ball in the bottom to protect the tips from being damaged by sliding back and forth in the bottle. Blunted needles and pins can damage expensive fabrics.
I use empty spice containers. I like the can type. I just pop open the side with small holes and the needle slips right in.