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Do you still use leaded solder? I was today refused to buy it ...

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Red Squirrel:
I still do but I can see merit in wanting to avoid lead as it's not exactly healthy for us, or for the environment.  I have not tried lead free yet so I can't comment on if I hate it or not but from what I gather it's not as good.

tooki:

--- Quote from: coppercone2 on November 23, 2021, 10:45:54 pm ---I wonder how much of a environmental cost is all the equipment that broke because of solder whiskers and bad lead free crap happening

--- End quote ---
Probably none, because tin whiskers aren’t a problem with lead-free solder, but with pure tin plating: https://www.indium.com/blog/pb-free-solders-are-not-the-cause-of-tin-whiskers.php

magic:

--- Quote from: Cerebus on November 24, 2021, 01:23:52 am ---
--- Quote from: thm_w on November 23, 2021, 11:32:26 pm ---Recycling practices vary among EU countries. In 2017, Croatia recycled 81% of all electronic and electrical waste,

--- End quote ---

Any idea why Croatia are so far ahead in the game?

--- End quote ---
No idea what Croatia, Estonia and Bulgaria are supposed to have in common.
IMHO a better question is how it was counted, because I'm fairly sure that it wasn't somebody actually inspecting all garbage bins in those countries.

Miyuki:

--- Quote from: thm_w on November 23, 2021, 11:32:26 pm ---
--- Quote from: coppercone2 on November 23, 2021, 10:45:54 pm ---I wonder how much of a environmental cost is all the equipment that broke because of solder whiskers and bad lead free crap happening

--- End quote ---

I don't think its ever been tallied up, and it would be a very difficult task to put a number to it. Xbox recall was over $1billion, although you can debate if that is directly due to lead-free..

If e-waste were properly disposed of, and recycled, using lead would not be an issue and would clearly be the better environmental option (https://sci-hub.mksa.top/10.1533/9780857096333.4.442). The problem is it just gets dumped.

"Less than 40% of all e-waste in the EU is reycled, the rest is unsorted. Recycling practices vary among EU countries. In 2017, Croatia recycled 81% of all electronic and electrical waste, while in Malta, the figure was 21%."
https://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/headlines/society/20201208STO93325/e-waste-in-the-eu-facts-and-figures-infographic

--- End quote ---
The problem here is how much is recycled (a proper way) and what portion is "recycled" by sending it to third-world countries.
They will recycle it there, and most of the used components at eBay/ali are from this but it causes way worse pollution and poisoning than just dumping it will

//edit: "poorer" countries have better numbers because they are using way less single-use stuff, selling scrap metal is decent money compared to income and repairs are economic because work cost is low compared to goods price (like one hour of service work in "rich country" can easily be even days of service work in the "poor country").

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