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Disposal /Recycling of lead or chromate painted components

2004

Coatings based on toxic materials like lead and chrome had been applied for decades for corrosion protection on engineering components, due to their very good corrosion protection characteristics and their availability and hence their low and competitive prices. Inadequate disposal of components coated with such toxic materials would allow this toxic material to pollute the ground water, the soil and the air and hence threaten the public health and the environment .

My questions : is there any US / international regulations which require that such coatings materials be removed from steel or other metallic substrates before the actual disposal or recycling of the substrate metals. What is the practice regarding the recycling of lead painted steel and recycling of steel covered with chromate conversion coatings.

Thank you for your kind reply.

Yahya H [last name deleted for privacy by Editor]
student - Hamed, Berlin, Germany

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April 10, 2008

Hi, Yahya. There is such a concept as "de minimus"; further, Parcellus claimed that only the dose distinguishes a medicine from a poison. So I neither challenge your concern nor acknowledge that it is valid -- I just don't know. But as for what to do about it, lead paint has not been used in decades, and chromate conversion coatings will no longer be used in the near future; they are essentially forbidden by RoHS and similar standards. But I'm sure that many tons of chromate coated steel goes to dumps or recycling plants daily.

Regards,

Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey