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What is the proper way to dispose of old tubes?

Are tubes considered hazardous waste? Do they require special handling to dispose of properly? Or are they just regular trash that can be disposed of in the garbage?

Note: I am not looking for responses of the type, "I don't know/care, I just throw them in the garbage." I have a bunch of burned out old tubes that I want to get rid of, and I want to do so in compliance with applicable requirements.
jimjoyce25
Post removed 
rodman99999
6,132 posts
 
Put 'em in a blender and proceed as instructed here: (http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/imagepages/1064.htm)
oregon
820 posts
 
SERIOUSLY GUYS- I WILL TAKE THEM!
benie
147 posts
 
Some older tubes contain mercury, a number of older Rectifiers did and a few other tubes.
atmasphere's avatar
atmasphere
11,807 posts
 
Jim, locally here in town we have an operation called 'Asset Recovery' where we take things that the recycling people won't pick up from the curb. They take hazardous waste like vacuum tubes, and so once a year we take all our bad tubes, circuit boards, old transformer and any other electronics there, where they get dismantled and the various materials are recovered for re-use.

www.assetrecoverycorp.com

You might check and see if such an operation is going in your town; most major metro areas have some sort of operation like this.
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