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| If lead is really needed to build critical stuff like cars or planes, they'll use it. |
Agreed. Big business will get waivers where necessary. This isn't a leftist conspiracy argument: I'm sure the government will demand that they institute a recycling program to ensure that none of the lead makes it out of the cycle. All will be cosy and straight-up with the arrangement.
The ones who will be SOL will be little guys who have a good argument not to use lead-free solder, but who don't have the juice to get a waiver.
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Oh, come now. You think the big manufacturers who make those weapons and sell them to the government can't petition the government for a waiver?
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| lead comes out of the earth in the first place |
Irrelevant. Lead, like almost all metals, is not found in its pure form in nature. It's always in compounds, and compounds of metals do not interact the same way as the pure form. Water would be flammable if it were otherwise -- it's hydrogen and oxygen!
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| The failure to recycle used PCBs...is the real issue I believe. |
Actually, no, that isn't the real issue. The real issue is that it costs more to extract useful materials from electronics than it costs to pull the same material out of the earth. Hence, it costs more to recycle, hence it won't be done.
There are efforts to set up computer recycling programs here in the US, but every one of them is either subsidized by the company for PR reasons, or there is a charge to recycle the computer. And of course, such unsuccessful programs mean the recycling centers are few and far between. "Hmmmm, should I drive 50 miles to the recycling depot and pay $50 for them to take it, or should I just walk 50 feet outside my front door and dump it in the skip? Hmmm..."
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| Europe should rethink this legislation before it's too late. |
It probably
is too late. This has been on the agenda for many years now, and as drewd says, many manufacturers have already made the jump. Big business is already resigned to this fact. Screaming from a bunch of DIYers isn't going to change anything. If it was going to be stopped, don't you think the multi-billion dollar electronics manufacturing industry would have done it?
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| China will use pure tin for sure. |
Horse hockey.
The vast bulk of China's electronics manufacturing output is for export, and their low prices are in part a result of volume. The loss of the European market alone would probably make up the difference in the solder cost. In other words, it'll be cheaper for them to go along than not.
In any case, Chinese manufacturing is captive to their customers: if the customers demand lead-free manufacturing, they will do lead-free manufacturing.
WIll there be a few places that offer traditional tin-lead manufacturing? Sure, small manufacturers that specialize in customers who sell to non-European markets. My employer has some custom hardware that has never been sold outside the US. If ever we decided to move manufacturing to the Pacific Rim, we might look for such a place.
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| lead-acid car batteries will be exempted from the ban |
There's already an effective recycling apparatus set up for those. I don't know about you, but every time I've bought a new car battery, I've taken the old one in to the store to trade in. They give you a discount on the new battery, and because the plates are easy to extract, it pays the store to do this as well.
The ones you'll have to worry about are things like SLAs in UPSes. There are free recyling programs for those (Radio Shack takes them, for instance), but who thinks to remove the battery from a dead UPS before disposing of it? Even when you're just replacing the battery, it's not like the car case, where you go to a store to get more batteries and it's convenient to bring the old ones along with you. You end up mail-ordering the things, so it's a hassle to recycle the old ones. I'm not saying nobody does it; I did it for some recent UPS battery replacements. I'm just saying that I think it's uncommon.
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| If you water is acidic then you may have a problem. |
All it takes is for something acidic to be buried on top of the battery in the landfill. Even the stale bottle of lemon juice that the wife threw out would do it.
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| Banning cadmium would also put the worlds largest producer of industrial batteries, SAFT (a French company), more or less out of business |
If that's all it takes to run them out of business, they shouldn't be
in business. They didn't get to be #1 by being stupid.
No, what'll happen is that NiCd batteries will go away, and everyone will start using NiMH. No need to panic, they behave almost identically. NiMH just costs more, which is the only reason NiCd is still being used.
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| Banning things is a temporary fix at best. |
If you want to take things to such a ridiculous extreme, you might as well say that modern medicine is a temporary fix at best, too. Why not scrap the whole multibillion dollar drain on our economy? Surely all those doctors could be doing something
useful, after all?
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| I trust someone has already done a cost/benefit analysis of banning heavy metal vs. implementing a recycling system that works. |
There are two cost/benefit analyses possible.
One is done in the marketplace. The computer and car battery cases I brought up above are examples of this. One gives a net profit, so it's successful. The other doesn't, so it isn't. This one's copacetic to people of all political stripes.
The other is done by the government. Here, money isn't the currency, it's voter goodwill, which is based on people's concerns over the health issues. The government responds to the people's demands, and forces industry to go along. Here, it doesn't matter whether it costs more to recycle or not. It's mandated, so it gets done. If this one bothers you, vote Libertarian.
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| A proper recycling program for electronics would solve the whole issue, |
I'm telling you, it's been tried, and it doesn't work.
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| lead is potentially dangerous if consumed in large quantity. |
The problem with lead is, that "large quantity" isn't all that large, and it doesn't have to happen all at once anyway. It accumulates in the body over time. And like any toxin, there isn't a magic molar value that you cross and suddenly you're sick.
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| we are destroying the planet with our insatiable appetite for constant change and "progress" as Roger Waters sings "this planet has amused itself to death" |
That's true enough, but let's face it, basing a save-the-planet strategy on this observation isn't likely to fix anything. What are you going to do, legislate responsible buying habits? Maybe sue Sony on the grounds of too-good marketing?
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| the government does more research than that article suggests. The government will not blindly remove lead from solder without fully investigating the effects. |
It might surprise you to read this, given what I've said above, but I disagree. The government is stupid in the short term, and often in the long term as well. I don't believe the government has any kind of wisdom, to speak of. What it does have is the ability to listen to what it hears. The problem is, the right voices aren't always the loudest.
Here's what I think will happen: The lead ban will go through, there will be a few years of problems, maybe some catastrophic accidents, and the pendulum will start swinging back the other way. Manufacturers will get waivers where necessary, exceptions will be written into the law, and people will spend more money on electronics all around (materials, inspection, higher shipping costs...)
Who knows, maybe the higher shipping costs will mean the revitalization of local manufacturing. Could be a good thing after all.
