What is the proper way to dispose of old tubes?

Put 'em in a blender and proceed as instructed here: (http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/imagepages/1064.htm)

SERIOUSLY GUYS- I WILL TAKE THEM!

Some older tubes contain mercury, a number of older Rectifiers did and a few other tubes.

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.

A question that has crossed my mind about hazardous materials is this: If the substance in question is mined, then it is found in nature. Why can't we just return it to nature? The only exception I can see would relate to large concentration of certain materials posing a danger.