What to do with dead monitors

[Henry Spencer]

On Fri, 26 Sep 2003, Marcus Brubaker wrote:
> > Unless CRT design has changed since the last time I looked, you don't get
> > the lead separate from the glass, because the lead is *in* the glass. 
> > It's lead glass -- glass with a high lead-oxide content.
> 
> As I understand it there are processes by which the lead and glass can
> be separated, which is what a lot of the CRT recycling places do.

I'm not up on current recycling processes, but I think you may have missed
my point, which is that there is no separate lead involved -- it's just a
type of glass with high lead-oxide content.  Take the lead oxide out
somehow and what you've got is no longer usable as glass.  (Although you
could probably *reduce* the lead-oxide content somewhat and still have a
practical glass.)

(Glass is based on silica, SiO2, but straight silica glass has a very high
melting point and is very difficult to work with; practical glass for
normal uses always includes other oxides to lower the melting point. 
Most ordinary glass is soda-lime glass, with sodium and calcium oxides,
but the other low-melting glass is lead glass, using lead oxide.  Fine
crystal, for example, is often lead glass, because it bends light more
than soda-lime glass and hence glitters more impressively.)

                                                          Henry Spencer
                                                       henry-lqW1N6Cllo0sV2N9l4h3zg at public.gmane.org

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