what to do with pencil shavings

[pianistimo]

isn't it a shame they end up being thrown out?  i mean - the sharpener could section off the lead - and save the wood shavings for gerbil cages.

[tanman]

um... ok I guess?

[tanman]

pianistimo, you should really meet lucylucy. me serious!

[pianistimo]

just 'thinking green.'  however, i'd hate to give a gerbil a paper cut if the shavings are too sharp?  ok here's another idea - press it into reusable pieces of paneling or deck material.  of course the lead would need to be removed. 

any other ideas.  (i know - this is probably a bit off the wall)

[keypeg]

The wood is not always pure, sometimes being mixed with filler material.  There is also a surface coating - you don't want your gerbils touching or breathing that in.

My quandary runs along the lines of shredded paper.  As a translator I generate a lot of it.  The idea of using it as small animal bedding didn't work after all.   Now that the menagery is reduced to one 15 year old free range bunny with a litter box, the idea doesn't work at all.  Shredded paper in a litter box?  Nope.  It gets sticky and a bunny hopping about with paper pieces stuck to his feet means "angry annoyed bunny". (Which is actually sort of cute - but not in his opinion).

Oh - nice to meet you pianistimo - btw.

KP

[pianistimo]

good points!  ok.  back to square one. 

funny bunny.

[aewanko]

Shavings are useless. Just throw them, although you could collect it and use it as firewood.

[rc]

Now I'm picturing P with bags and bags of pencil shavings, muttering "waste not, want not!" with a crazy glint in her eyes.

 

[rc]

"hey kid, you just gonna throw them pencil shavings away?"

*crazy glint*

[arensky]

"hey kid, you just gonna throw them pencil shavings away?"

*crazy glint*

LMAO   

[a-sharp]

Actually, aren't pencils all made with graphite these days (as opposed to lead)?

And if it was lead - best to put it in the trash, no? Course - you could call the hazardous waste pickup... lol

Even as kindling - unless you have a raw wood pencil - I mean - some pencils have rubber coatings or paint - ya probably wouldn't want to be burning that. At least not in the house.

Pianistimo - you get the prize for thinking with a recycling mindset!

[db05]

Actually, aren't pencils all made with graphite these days (as opposed to lead)?

"Lead" is just a name. It's graphite all along. I don't see how it can be harmful, it's plain carbon, right? But the filler and the surface coating might be dangerous.

Am also curious about this because I don't like mechanical pencils. I want to shape the pencil point myself, not too thin.

[keypeg]

Good pencils don't use pure graphite either.  They are mixed with wax or similar to create the right texture and lack of brittleness.  When I began music theory my son, seeing me struggling with brittle pencils, got me on to that.  It is a tactile pleasure to draw well formed notes with a good, hand-sharpened pencil.

[db05]

Well, nothing is pure anything anymore... How can we even tell if something is biodegradeable/ non-biodegradeable/ hazardous waste??

[pianistimo]

wow. i never expected to get so many responses!  it was just a late-night look at the full automatic pencil sharpener holder and the thought popped into my head.  now, as you say - i don't want to be dumping toxic waste.  although, technically wax isn't toxic.  hmm.  i thought of stuffing pouperri bags with it - but they would smell like woodshavings.  maybe one could save it for some kind of architectural rendition and put it down like sawdust somewhere - in a potential park.

[a-sharp]

dbo5 - "lead" is lead - it's an element with an atomic number of 82 ... "Like mercury, another heavy metal, lead is a potent neurotoxin that accumulates in soft tissues and bone over time." ...  Carbon, is a different element - atomic number of 6. Check out the periodic table...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Periodic_table

they did once use lead in pencils - but discontinued it a long time ago. Same with paints ... which is why one has to be careful with removing paint from an old house...

Look - here's an experiment you can do with your friends to determine what is biodegradable or not:
https://cwmi.css.cornell.edu/TrashGoesToSchool/WhatIsBio.html

(that's not meant to be insulting, I swear. I thought it was cute.)

....
keypeg - you're right. you have to pay extra for the graphite at the art supply store. I forgot!

..........