William Sommerwerck wrote:
Is a lead-free item that fails and ends up in the landfill after 2
years better than a lead-containing device that lasts a decade?

And is then properly recycled?

Recycling is the issue. The only current economical way to do it is to
ship the equipment to third-world countries where poverty-stricken can
dismantle it.

I've read "news" stories on that, that said that in some (many?)
cases, they just take the money and dump the equipment in
their own landfills, so the materials are never recycled.

I don't know how true that is (if at all) but it brings up
the issue of verifying that recycling is actually done, and
done _properly_. Things that are simple in theory can get
really complicated in actual practice, so it's hard to say
whether we're better off (not just right now, but long term)
dealing with the recycling issue or just doing away with
lead and being left with the tin whiskers.

Again, I hope in the future there will be solutions that
aren't actually just compromises.

Jay Ts
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