Posted on 09/03/2008 7:24:07 AM PDT by Red Badger
Tire companies, big box stores, and the government are putting the brakes on the use of lead wheel weights. Through EPA's National Lead-Free Wheel Weight Initiative, partners have agreed to phase-in the use of lead-free alternative wheel weights and reduce the amount of lead released into the environment by 2011.
"Our partners have pledged to reduce or eliminate their use of lead wheel weights," said Susan Parker Bodine, assistant administrator of EPA's Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response. "Their efforts will remove millions of pounds of lead from the environment and the waste stream."
Eliminating lead wheel weights is a significant step toward reducing the overall amount of lead released into the environment. EPA estimates that 50 million pounds of lead per year are used for wheel weights in cars and light trucks. It is common for wheel weights to come off when a vehicle hits a pothole in the road or stops suddenly, which results in lead entering the environment. Lead-containing wheel weights also add lead into the environment as they move into the waste stream at the end of product life.
The charter members include Firestone Complete Auto Care; Firestone Racing (a division of Bridgestone Firestone North American Tire); Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co.; Costco Wholesale; Wal-Mart Tire and Lube Express; Sam's Club Tire and Battery Centers; Wal-Mart Transportation; Hennessy Industries Inc.-BADA Division; Perfect Equipment; 3M Automotive Division; the U.S. Air Force; U.S. Postal Service; General Services Administration; Ford Motor Co.; General Motors Corp.; Chrysler; Plombco; the Association of International Automobile Manufacturers; the Town of Blacksburg, Virginia; the Ecology Center; Sierra Club; the Environmental Council of States and several small businesses.
For more information, visit www.epa.gov/epaoswer/hazwaste/minimize/nlfwwi.htm
they do that here as well - they use one of those magnets that they put down a cow’s gut to pull out nails and magnetic stuff that cattle will swallow.
i hunt a raised blind in the middle of a tidal marsh - can only get to it by boat.
it would be an easy matter to dump a box of shells before they got anywhere near me.
Lord Obama (peace be upon him) will solve the problem by blessing us with a speed limit so low that we won’t need to balance our wheels. We will save oil and save the Earth, too.
If only we can survive long enough for Lord Obama to save us.
I have a major infestation of beaver in my lake, and they keep blocking up my spillway and emergency overflow channel.
I have trapped most of them this year, but I have been having more fun than a barrel of monkeys snapping off 200 yard shots with open sights at them when they swim across in the evening.
I figure I have put more lead in the lake with my various rifles than I ever will shot anyway.
buddy of mine in south jersey trapped 25 beaver this past year.
too much work for me.
I do it just to get rid of the pests, the pelts are worth anything and are a major pain to properly skin anyway.
I was kind of surprised when I pulled a 56lb one out last fall though, before him I was just getting the young ones.
I never laughed so hard a couple of weeks ago, my father who lives across the lake finished his landscaping around the water’s edge, looked great.
A couple of days later he called up and asked me to look down by the lake, see if I was anything different. I said no, then he pointed out the nice little maple tree he had transplanted by his dock, it was a larger tree, about 4” trunk.
I looked closer and all I saw was about 8” of it left coming up to a sharp point, I laughed myself silly and promised to start trapping again.
Isn't there a finite amount of lead(Pb) in the world? It may change forms but if you don't make tire weights from it does it cease to exist?
What if we just agree to stop eating wheel weights?
Can't we just all get along?
Don’t reloaders cast bullets out of them?
That WOULD explain some of the thinking coming out of Boulder...
Yes. Methinks that is the real target, not “the environment”..............
Next: self-balancing tires and/or rims.
Where is the evidence that it is "common" to have wheel weights come off when hitting potholes or stopping? I can visualize an occasional instance but not common.
In my opinion, this is just another "make work" issue by the civil servants in the useless EPA.
If it were cheaper a competitor would have routed the market.
If lead is a hazard, why not try to come up with a reasonable substitute?
There is no substantive evidence that it is a hazard.
But can you bite down on them?
Leadville is an EPA Superfund site
I don’t think it’s common for wheel weights to come off when hitting pot holes or stopping, but unless it’s recycled the lead eventually ends up somewhere in the environment, and there’s no place in the environment where that’s a good thing. I’m not making a case for “make work” projects for civil servants or anyone else. However, I do support a rational approach to keeping toxic metals out of food, water, and air.
We do...for a little while longer anyway.
I Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle at 1,000 feet per second.
Yes and No. Lead will oxidize on its surface and become relative insoluble under most circumstances. However, if it is in an acetic environment it will become soluble and a hazard. This is why the old glazes using a lead oxides and mecury oxide pigments could cause heavy metal poisoning. A pitcher made of this with orange juice in it (acetic) would pose a danger.
Relative to the danger of lead weights in the environment, it is not a danger. This is a case of the government out of control that wishes to totally control us. This is not good.
Lead wasn't flown in from another planet.
It is here, it has always been here, it will always be here.
It is a "natural" resource (just like oil) and it should be used for the purposes it is, has been and is best suited for.
Grapes & cherries are natural, too. Why don't you suck on a lead lozenger for a few months.
When you change your oil, do you dump it in the lake? After all, it's a natural resource. What can it hurt?
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