Lunk
12-22-2009, 02:17 PM
So I tried to see about getting some wheel weights yesterday. Had some interesting results.
First I went to the local metal recyclers. They had 20 or 30 pounds and wanted $.75 per pound. Mentioned some guy was just in a couple days ago and bought over 200lb off them so they did not have much.
Then I went to the closest tire shop to my house, a Les Schwab. They have there's picked up by the local battery recyclers usually so they were out at the moment but he would save them for me since he knew I was looking for them. He wanted $45 for a bucket full. Then he told me something that just floored me. The manager stated that as of Jan1 Lead wheel weights would be illegal in Washington.
I then went home and looked it up. If lead wheel weights were going to become illegal I wanted to know.
This is what I found: Bill 1033 (http://apps.leg.wa.gov/billinfo/summary.aspx?bill=1033&year=2009)
I then went to a mom and pop tire place in the next town over. The manager there told me the same thing. He also wanted $60 per bucket of weights.
When I told him that only California was outlawing them as of Jan1 and Washington's did not go into effect until 2011 he stated that his distributor was no longer carrying lead wheel weights and all he could get was steel.
I then went home again and did some more research and found an article announcing that all Les Schwab stores were going lead free as of the first of the year for "environmental reasons". Now they have many many stores over the western states and I imagine that it was just easier for the corporate office to just say everyone goes to steel instead of the 30 or so stores in CA go steel and everyone else can still use lead. Also that they have enough buying power with there wholesaler that when CA made it illegal and Les Schwab said to all go "green" that they could see the writing on the wall and just dropped carrying lead entirely. In today's corporate market efficiency is king and only having one line of products for everyone is more efficient.
I take from this one very important lesson, if you live in any western states GO GET YER WEIGHTS! The clock is ticking and time is almost up!
First I went to the local metal recyclers. They had 20 or 30 pounds and wanted $.75 per pound. Mentioned some guy was just in a couple days ago and bought over 200lb off them so they did not have much.
Then I went to the closest tire shop to my house, a Les Schwab. They have there's picked up by the local battery recyclers usually so they were out at the moment but he would save them for me since he knew I was looking for them. He wanted $45 for a bucket full. Then he told me something that just floored me. The manager stated that as of Jan1 Lead wheel weights would be illegal in Washington.
I then went home and looked it up. If lead wheel weights were going to become illegal I wanted to know.
This is what I found: Bill 1033 (http://apps.leg.wa.gov/billinfo/summary.aspx?bill=1033&year=2009)
I then went to a mom and pop tire place in the next town over. The manager there told me the same thing. He also wanted $60 per bucket of weights.
When I told him that only California was outlawing them as of Jan1 and Washington's did not go into effect until 2011 he stated that his distributor was no longer carrying lead wheel weights and all he could get was steel.
I then went home again and did some more research and found an article announcing that all Les Schwab stores were going lead free as of the first of the year for "environmental reasons". Now they have many many stores over the western states and I imagine that it was just easier for the corporate office to just say everyone goes to steel instead of the 30 or so stores in CA go steel and everyone else can still use lead. Also that they have enough buying power with there wholesaler that when CA made it illegal and Les Schwab said to all go "green" that they could see the writing on the wall and just dropped carrying lead entirely. In today's corporate market efficiency is king and only having one line of products for everyone is more efficient.
I take from this one very important lesson, if you live in any western states GO GET YER WEIGHTS! The clock is ticking and time is almost up!