Tech Forum

I will use it. How much do you want for it?

I'll take it as I still use leaded solder.

Leaded solder is still available and widely used, both in aerospace and in the repair and rework of older equipment that was made with leaded solder. Many hobbyists including myself prefer leaded solder because it flows better and makes much nicer joints. As long as you don’t chew on it and are not disposing of millions of tons of equipment made with it there is not really a hazard in having or using it. If you don’t want it I would encourage you to give it to somebody else or alternately you could sell it on ebay.

Leaded solder is considered hazardous waste. If you want to get rid of it reasonably, you can take it to your local house hold hazardous waste. Contact your municipality and they should be able to help you out with that. HHW usually is only one or two days a year at your local collection site.

Most countries would consider it hazardous — as you surmise — and it should be disposed of responsibly, according to local regs. (Whoever accepts dead car batteries should take it for free?)

But should you get rid of it all? The fact that you have it at all indicates you’re interested in electronics, either from repair or construction. The important point I’m trying to make is that the two types of solder don’t play well together, so for reliability, older equipment should only be soldered with leaded solder (and vice versa.)

Do some Googling to check it out. Don’t use plumbing lead-free solder for electronics, either! If you’re giving up the hobby, then shame, but so be it.

If you are a hobbyist, why not just use it. Unless you are selling a product in high volume you’re not going to distroy the world. And it’s so much better than the lead free stuff.

Send it to me. Or to your local makerspace or electronics club (or robotics club, model train club, so on). Most of us prefer to work with leaded solder rather than lead-free for a whole host of reasons.

Officially you’re supposed to dispose of it at a local waste materials convenience center, but I just cant see it going to waste when so many of us are looking for leaded solder.

Take it to a metals recycling center that deals in lead (usually those that take old lead acid batteries). It is generally considered hazardous waste, so don’t throw it away in your trash bin.

You might look into see if you have any kind of municipal or county hazardous waste collection facilities as a part of your home garbage pickup service as well. They may have a drop-off location that can take it.

Finally, you might consider donating it to a local maker or hacker space; a lot of people love leaded solder over non-leaded, due to certain properties it has versus the other.

Instead of throwing it away which is probably illegal, especially if you live in CA, why don’t you give it to other hobbyists. Would you take the cost of shipping to send a spool?

I don’t do any commercial work, so using leaded solder is no problem. The cost of solder for a lot of us retired hobbyist is a lot. Also, what diameter is the solder and does it have a rosin core?