The one thing I haven't been able to find an answer to......

[C. Latch]

I just started casting a few months ago. Right now and for the foreseeable future, my needs are limited to muzzleloaders and 'normal' handgun cartridges (i.e. nothing smaller than a .38 Special and nothing bigger than a .45 Colt). This has meant that I'm able to play around in the 'kiddie pool' level of bullet casting, and the questions I've had were all easily answered, thus far.

Except one.


After finding a semi-reliable source for wheelweights, I have accumulated a half-bucket of clips, dross, slag, iron weights, and a handful of zinc weights.

What do you do with this stuff? Any reason I shouldn't dump it in the trash next week, or just give it to the recycler guy down the road, or what? Any special handling considerations when getting rid of scraps that are full of lead and other similar metals?

[462]

Once, I took 135 pounds of zinc and steel wheel weights, and the loose clips to a recycler. It cost more for the gas than what he paid. Since then, all that stuff goes into the recycling can that the trash company provides, and they can do with it what they want.

[BBQJOE]

There's a guy here who will trade your zinc for lead. Search for shady grady. Spelling might be wrong, not sure.

[timberhawk]

The clips, dross, slag, iron weights, and zinc weights that are skimmed when smelting are all considered hazardous material due to the traces of lead. I collect mine and take it to the local hazardous waste center for disposal.
Your not suppose to throw it in the local trash, because it will potentially contaminate the underground water table.

[steve4102]

The clips, dross, slag, iron weights, and zinc weights that are skimmed when smelting are all considered hazardous material due to the traces of lead. I collect mine and take it to the local hazardous waste center for disposal.
Your not suppose to throw it in the local trash, because it will potentially contaminate the underground water table.

Interesting. That would mean that the water table in the city I live in is about as contaminated as it can get. Most of the city water pies in this town are pure lead. The lead pipes are gradually being replaced when they have to dig up a city street for road repair or a broken sewer line, but there are still miles and miles of pure lead pipe supplying thousands of homes and businesses.

[ku4hx]

... hazardous material due to the traces of lead ... Your not suppose to throw it in the local trash, because it will potentially contaminate the underground water table.

So you recover every boolit you fire ... and all their fragments and traces no matter how small? I mine our club's berm from time to time, but it's not a regular thing with advancing age and all and now days we leave more than I retrieve. And we shoot at a local indoor range and have no idea what eventually happens to lead left there. There's no restriction on boolits you see.

Hmmm, just gets curiouser and curiouser the more I think about your comment knowing you're a boolit caster and boolit shooter.

As to the OP's original question, searching the forum will bring up many comments. Here's one thread: http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?94588-What-Is-the-best-way-to-dispose-of-dross&highlight=dross+disposal

[jonp]

when you get 40lbs of zinc ww shadygrady will trade them for lead.
As for the rest, they are not hazardous waste. Take them to a recycling center.

[Blammer]

I take my left overs to the recycle center they pay me for them quite well. :)

[shadygrady]

yes send that zinc to me for lead all that trash you got left will sale at shread price .11 lb to the junk yard buyers thats were i take mine when i get a truck load last load was $200

[Pilgrim]

My garbage can is about 20 ft from my casting station. Since all of the "slag and dross" came out of the ground in the first place, I don't sweat it and put the dross in with the rest of my garbage. Doesn't burn any gas and takes waayyy less time than trying to find a recycling station that will take it. I don't know how many tons of lead is in our range. The range is in the city limits. The range is used by the police (local & state), and something on the order of 150 or 200 members. No berms, just a hillside behind the target berms and probably 25 miles of essentially nothing behind the hill. Been shooting there for more than 30 years and have never seen anybody picking up fired boolits. Haven't noticed any particular increase in weird looking inhabitants. I worry way more about the chemicals our local farmers use than I do the metals than get put in the landfills.

[303Guy]

Sounds like that berm is about ready for mining.

[leadman]

I get 25 cents a pound for my dross from the recycler. The weight adds up pretty quick.

[olafhardt]

Once upon a time I did a lot of recycling work. What makes solids "hazardous" is what will leach out not what they contain. Lead metal does not leach lead. Stainless steel does not leach chromium even though it runs about 18%. This is why dross and dirt aren't "hazardous".

[prs]

My community is within a tributary of the Ohio river and thus part of the Mississippi water shed which is generally alreadt "contaminated" with natural deposits of lead.

prs

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

After finding a semi-reliable source for wheelweights, I have accumulated a half-bucket of clips, dross, slag, iron weights, and a handful of zinc weights.

What do you do with this stuff? Any reason I shouldn't dump it in the trash next week, or just give it to the recycler guy down the road, or what? Any special handling considerations when getting rid of scraps that are full of lead and other similar metals?

I separate the steel/iron from the Zinc.
Steel/Iron goes to the salvage yard.
I'm saving Zinc for Shadygrady or something? it should be worth about the same as lead.

"dross, slag" there shouldn't be anything else, but a dirt like powder with very little weight. if your's has any weight to it, you need to flux better. I handle this powder as if it's contaminated with lead that can be easily airborne, which wouldn't be good. But I'm skeptical if there is any Lead in it. I doublebag it, and into the trash.
Good Luck,
Jon

[jimb16]

The EPA once tried to force the army to clean up Lake Erie around Camp Perry, dispite many water quality tests that showed no lead getting into the water. Congress did something right. They declared that portion of Lake Erie to be a "National Lead Reserve under War Materials act, so the EPA has no jurisdiction!

[10 Spot Terminator]

Iron goes in the garbage as do the clips.
If you fish you can make sinkers out of the zinc weights.
the dross as long as you never had any zinc contaminants can render it into like recovered range scrap and reclaim the good stuff which is usually mostly tin.

[Old Caster]

Streams in the St. Louis area have actual lead in the rock. This is why it was known as the lead belt in the early years. All that was necessary to get the lead was take the rock and crush it while streaming water across and the lead would go to the bottom and the sand or dust would wash off and exit in the water.