What is the proper way to dispose of old tubes?

Touche' Trelja- I stepped it in with the silica, silicon and silicone(sili of me). I suppose I've sniffed too many silca gel packs lately. I'll henceforth leave early morninig posting alone(and eat a "big enough breakfast" instead). Care to address any of the points that actually pertain to the thread, and whether the elements that vacuum tubes contain(and appear on the Periodic Table) are EVER considered "synthetics", or harmful to the environment? I'm still anxious to hear your reply to the question of sulfuric acid, in quantity, being found in nature as well.

Art -- perfect. I bought a big batch of random tubes for a few bucks, mostly from old TVs and the like, just for fun. Some are really beautiful objects.

When I showed them to an artist friend, she wanted to use them in some sort of future creation which I thought was a great idea. I'll get first dibs on buying it, so I figure my $3 worth of tubes will now cost me a grand ;-)

Jimjoyce25, good on you all around.

I am shocked, SHOCKED at the incredible lack of scientific knowledge displayed in this thread!

The critical consideration that arises from the original question "are tubes considered hazardous waste?" has been completely ignored!

Let's put on our thinking caps, people. We call them "tubes," but actually they are "VACUUM tubes." Once the glass envelope containing the vacuum has been broken or otherwise compromised, the vacuum is released directly into the environment!

We're all familiar with the saying "Nature abhors a vacuum," aren't we? Can you name anything else Nature abhors? No? I thought not.

I rest my case.
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Rodman99999, I need to jump off of this thread, as I'm about to leave out for RMAF2008, and am in a relatedly ebullient mood. At any rate, I appreciate your sense of humor!

Yes, you're right, there is sulfuric acid on Venus. I was ignoring that and discounting Venus as "nature", as we do not live on Venus, nor does it support life as we know it, and couldn't because of that. With your permission, I'll revise my statement to mean nature in this case, being earth, specifically. But, considering nature as the universe, things like sulfuric acid, methane, ammonia and other things we could never tolerate in more than small quantities exist on other planets in high concentration. Anyway, as they say, women are from Venus, men are from Mars...

If one of my tubes physically broke, came apart from its base, or whatever, what would I do? I'd simply throw it in the trash. Apart from all of the back and forth in this thread, there really isn't much to worry about with a tube.

Now, as for me, how do I actually dispose of my vacuum tubes? In fact, I don't. Instead, I take a bit of string, tie it around the base or pins of the tube, and use them for Christmas tree decorations. I kid you not. People inevitably ask about them, and always think they're cool. One of these years, I should wire a couple of tube sockets into my string lights, and actually up the wacky factor by setting the tubes on glow.

Trelja- It wouldn't take much voltage to get the filaments lit. I'd like to see pictures of that(no doubt: every other AudioGoner would too)! Ya know- I never thought about that fact(women are from Venus). Is that why they're so acidic, er- acetic, OOPS- I mean acerbic?(there I go again) =8^) Have fun at the AudioFest.