"Lane" lane (no spam) at copperaccents dot com wrote in message
...

"Harold and Susan Vordos" wrote in message Of course
they
did. The very notion that lead is valueless is absurd, the
stuff of housewife's tales. It is a commodity like anything else and
is
valuable in the recycle business. How folks deduct that because a
substance is controlled that it has no value is beyond me. Wouldn't a
prudent individual conclude that old wheel weights can be melted to make
*new* wheel weights?

Harold



This was true even 20-25 years ago. If a good customer asked for some old
wheel weights I'd give him a pound or so, but if it was someone I didn't
know they were sent on thier way. But I'm sure the stuff is even more
valuable now.

Lane


Yep! Surprisingly, not all substances (or elements) work that way. There
was a time when you could sell mercury with no trouble. Recycle places
gladly accepted it and paid a reasonable price for it.

In the course of running the refining business I once owned, I retorted a
considerable amount of dental amalgam. It runs slightly over 50% mercury,
as I recall, and I ended up with more than 100 pounds of it over the years.
I was shocked to find that unless you have a full flask (76 pounds), even
major refiners won't accept it from you, and they won't pay for it until the
amount exceeds what I recall to be 150 pounds. You can ship a single flask
to them at your expense and they'll gladly accept it gratis. You're out
the flask and shipping. The deal was so lousy, I gave all the mercury to
the purchaser of the business when I sold it.

Harold