ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIESMar 7

You may ask:

"Why?"

But the universe whispers back:

"Why not?"

Show threadclewMar 7

Why not with the CRTs is that the tubes should be more carefully disposed of and mixing them with... everything else makes that harder.

Am hopefully believing that the actual CRTs *have* been disposed of and we are seeing merely the appliance shells.

@benroyce

Show threadᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIESMar 7
@clew is it lead? The CRTs have lead in them I think?
Show threadclewMar 7

Mercury in the inside of the tubes? Both?

Plus they can implode in a pretty explody way

@benroyce

Show threadᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES

@clew eww

good point

Mar 7 at 11:16pmWeb
Show threadclewMar 7

Lead and unspecified heavy metals, according to EPA and my state Ecology.

And! delightfully practical discussion from reddit filmmakers:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Filmmakers/comments/16ulkdq/would_it_be_dangerous_to_break_a_small_crt_tv/

@benroyce

Show threadᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIESMar 7
@clew "lots of nasty dust will come up" 😬 lead dust
Show threadclewMar 7

Glass powder lead dust! Get those fine particles *right* into the bloodstream!

@benroyce

Show threadᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIESMar 7

@clew

I remember cutting open an old weird battery as a kid and remarking on the little beads of mercury 😅😅😅

Show threadAlex@rtnVFRmedia Suffolk UKMar 7

@benroyce @clew

TBH pretty much all CRTs had implosion protection by the 1970s, although correct disposal remains a problem - already a whole load have ended up in landfills across the USA since the 2000s and even here in Europe the "eco-friendly" places often quietly sent them to poorer countries...

Show threadclewMar 7

looks like the leaded glass was recycled into more leaded glass (more CRTs) until suddenly the market collapsed

I guess we don't want leaded glass to drink out of anymore, either. Uh, radiation-sheilding windows? Is it good for anything that's worth the risk? Is the glass okay encapsulation of the lead if it gets sintered into big glassy blocks, or will the lead leach?

argh

@vfrmedia @benroyce

Show threadAlex@rtnVFRmedia Suffolk UKMar 7

@clew @benroyce

I think its only major use case these days is radiation shielding windows - even light fittings are increasingly all plastic, including industrial grade ones.

Lead itself is still useful for a lot of things (particularly starter/aux batteries for motor vehicles which are still in heavy demand) and can be recovered from CRTs alongside rare earth metals, but how much this happens will of course depend on market demand and cost opposed to producing new raw materials (lead does get recycled a lot though as its relatively easy to do)

https://www.wiserrecycling.co.uk/our-facilities/crt-recycling/

Show threadᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIESMar 7

@vfrmedia @clew

i read somewhere recently that millions of dollars worth of gold and silver goes into swiss wastewater from their various industries centered around refining, jewelry, etc

but it's just not cost effective to recover it

Show threadAlex@rtnVFRmedia Suffolk UKMar 7

@benroyce @clew there was research carried out in 2017 which suggested only in the Southern part of the country would it be worth recovering it, and its particles weighing just nanograms that cannot even be seen with the human eye..

https://www.dw.com/en/switzerland-sewers-flush-with-gold-and-silver/a-40923630

Swiss sewers flush with gold and silver

Sewers in Switzerland are hiding tiny particles of gold and silver among the grease and waste. Researchers have found tons of silver and more than 40 kilograms (90 pounds) of gold in Swiss waste water.

Deutsche Welle
Show threadᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIESMar 7

@vfrmedia @clew

leave it for future alluvial deposits for the panners of the year 12,000

Show threadRaven667Mar 8
@clew @vfrmedia @benroyce my completely uneducated guess is that the lead is safely encased and wont leach out, like uranium glass which is safe
Show threadRaven667Mar 8
@clew @vfrmedia @benroyce if im out here guessing then i also think that recycling and melting is probably the dangerous part that can cause the lead to become exposed and probably needs ro be done with care, air filtering
Show threadsaxnotMar 8
@raven667 @clew @vfrmedia @benroyce TIL uranium glass is safe
Show threadᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIESMar 8

@saxnot @raven667 @clew @vfrmedia

it's "safe" in that it's not leaching a lot of uranium, much like leaded glass is "safe" because it's not leaching a lot of lead

of course, that means it's not really safe at all, because you don't want any uranium or lead in you, and there is no reason to use it unless you're a victorian reenactor

and the issue with the uranium is the chemical toxicity, not the radioactivity