You may ask:

[clew@ecoevo.social]

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

[benroyce@mastodon.social]

@clew is it lead? The CRTs have lead in them I think?

[capeta@ursal.zone]

@benroyce A R T

[clew@ecoevo.social]

Mercury in the inside of the tubes? Both?

Plus they can implode in a pretty explody way

@benroyce

[benroyce@mastodon.social]

@clew eww

good point

[chasalin@mastodon.chasalin.nl]

@benroyce my question:
WHAT???

[clew@ecoevo.social]

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

And! delightfully practical discussion from reddit filmmakers:

(www.reddit.com)

@benroyce

[benroyce@mastodon.social]

@clew "lots of nasty dust will come up" lead dust

[clew@ecoevo.social]

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

@benroyce

[benroyce@mastodon.social]

@chasalin it took some preparation. how did the idea occur

[log@mastodon.sdf.org]

@benroyce Gladiatoilets.

[benroyce@mastodon.social]

@clew

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

[benroyce@mastodon.social]

@log two toilets enter. One toilet leaves

[vfrmedia@social.tchncs.de]

@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...

[classwario@mastodon.social]

@benroyce Hey look it’s the midterms

[clew@ecoevo.social]

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

[raccoon@hollow.raccoon.quest]

@benroyce@mastodon.social
So... Right one won?

[xs4me2@mastodon.social]

@benroyce

Difficult to unsee…

[cgudrian@social.tchncs.de]

@benroyce Woah! I've always wanted to know!

[vfrmedia@social.tchncs.de]

@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/