All,
for those already in the depths of Take back, wondering what you are going
to do with those assemblies not wanted by your customers, take heart. There
are now businesses being built on the back of recycling that are stripping
parts and assemblies to be reused in the toy industry for example.
Will not advertise companies on this forum but, you will not have difficulty
in finding them as they are queing at the door to take your trash to recycle
components, precious metals etc and they are turning a profit as well! It
would only be a short step to recycle solder, whatever the composition
(would suggest some sort of labeling system to diferentiate solder types,
similar I guess to the system employed in marking plastics).
Regards,
Martin.
-----Original Message-----
From: Brian Ellis [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 11 February 2001 08:35
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [LF] re "How do you junk your computer?" in TIME, Feb
12,2001 pg. 70
Harvey
I have not read the article in question, so cannot comment on it. But I
can comment on what you have written.
Firstly, it is not true that lead salts are not water-soluble.
Otherwise, we could you lead pipes and lead crystal glassware with
impunity. I'll quote a few figures of cold water solubility from the
Handbook of Chemistry and Physics:
lead acetate 44.3 g/100 cm3
lead azide 0.023 g/100 cm3
lead bromide 0.8441 g/100 cm3
lead perchlorate 499.7 g/100 cm3
lead iodide 0.1 g/100 cm3
lead isobutyrate 9.1 g/100 cm3
lead nitrate 37.65 g/100 cm3
lead dithionate 115 g/100 cm3
etc.
This shows that a number of salts, both organic and inorganic, are quite
soluble. Of these, it is quite feasible for lead bromide to actually be
on a discarded PCB, if a hydrobromide-activated soldering flux was used.
The greatest risk is with lead acetate as it may be formed in a landfill
in many ways, reacting between oxidised solder and the liquid left in a
jar of pickles being the most obvious, but aerobic fermentation of
ethanol (discarded alcoholic liquor) and, going one stage further back,
fermentation of rotten fruit being just some ways.
It is true that the mobility of lead salts in **some** soils is low, due
to an ion exchange mechanism, but I think this holds true only for
ferrous clays or soils containing them.
I am 100% for the recycling of the solder and oppose the "lead-free"
lobby on the grounds that, if it is recycled, there is no risk in using
lead.
However, please, Harvey, let's take the emotion out of the issue and get
down to the science.
There are many other regulatory issues based on bad "science" propagated
by ignorant technocrats, such as the European stance on
trichloroethylene, so please don't think that lead-in-solder is unique.
It is just the tip of the iceberg which will sink the economic ship,
especially in Europe. However, the worst piece of regulation in force is
the European Directive on VOCs in solvents. This is not only based on
bad "science", it is completely stupid in its practical application.
The real issue here is how to bring sound premisses into regulatory
issues. To get a paper published in Nature or any other reputable
scientific journal, it has to go through a severe peer-review process.
This is not the case to get a legislation, affecting industry, passed.
The nett result is that whole industries are exported from developed
countries to developing ones which are not so strict, causing employment
reductions in the former. Example: there is reduced shoe manufacture in
the USA because of OSHA regulations on methylene chloride (used in
adhesives), so much of it has now been exported to Brazil.
Brian
Harvey Miller wrote:
>
> Anita Hamilton's article does a good job of calling attention to one of
the
> most pressing world problems of our time, the need to recycle
> end-of-life-electronics. To defray the cost we should pay a modicum up
> front at the beginning of life for our cell phones, DVDs, and personal
> computers. Otherwise old electronic equipment will bury us in their toxic
> remains. (Some people make similar early provision for disposal.of their
own
> bodies when they will no longer need them.)
>
> The author errs on one point, however. She has fallen for the
self-serving
> no-lead in solder promotion that would benefit a few companies. Replacing
> lead in solder would cost billions of dollars for new equipment and
processes
> that the rest of us would have to pay. True, lead ingested is "more"
toxic
> than tin, copper, or silver. But lead and its compounds in the landfill
> don't travel, don't dissolve in water. The other elements do, thus their
> threat to life is far greater. Even the proponents admit that the
> alternative no-lead solder alloys are much less reliable. At the very
least,
> they present great unknowns, with many downsides, often difficult to
recycle
> The anti-lead propaganda is like the Y2K scare, except airplanes didn't
fall
> out of the sky at midnight on Jan 1, 2000. But take the lead out of
solder
> and........
>
> Here's to recycling-- the rational answer!
>
> Harvey Miller
> [log in to unmask]
> 255 TOWN & COUNTRY VILLAGE
> PALO ALTO CA 94301
> (650) 327-2029
>
>
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