How do you dispose of old solder paste?

As the question says really - I have some really out of date solder paste so how to dispose of it, taking into account UK law?

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baldengineer over 2 years ago +1

Easy! Put a blue piece of tape on the tube and write "do not eat" on the tape before throwing it in the trash. Is it lead-free? My town (in the US) has a hazardous waste disposal facility. That's where…

0 baldengineer over 2 years ago

Easy! Put a blue piece of tape on the tube and write "do not eat" on the tape before throwing it in the trash.

Is it lead-free?

My town (in the US) has a hazardous waste disposal facility. That's where I take stuff like old solder paste (and spent batteries.) Which for paste, is mostly stencils I didn't clean or empty containers. Mine is mostly SnPb, so I tell the person I give the bag to that they should treat it the same as lead paint.
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0 cstanton over 2 years ago

I'm not sure.

However it turns out there's a market for "solder dross recycling", and companies in the UK will pay you for waste solder in sufficient quantities.
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0 Andrew J over 2 years ago in reply to baldengineer

My local waste recycling centre accepts "some hazardous waste" but doesn't specify what. They do have a separate recycling container for electronic waste which I use for old PCBs, etc which will have leaded solder on them. Whenever I've taken paint there I'm always told to just bung it in the general waste container

The council specifically don't want hazardous waste in the normal rubbish collection. They wouldn't know obviously but it seems reasonable to try and at least dispose of the stuff properly.
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0 Andrew J over 2 years ago in reply to cstanton

I only have a small amount.
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0 dougw over 2 years ago

I don't know what is available in the UK.

In Canada, there are hazardous waste disposal depots where you can drop off chemicals, paint, batteries etc. and different depots for electronic waste. There is no cost, but you have to take the material to the depot.
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0 Andrew J over 2 years ago in reply to dougw

I'll just take it to the local dump and see what they say.
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0 michaelkellett over 2 years ago

I have a couple of pots of it lurking on a shelf. They don't take up much space. By the time they ready to put me in a box they can put the solder paste in with me. Might be 10 old pots by then - it lasts a lot longer than they say if you keep it in the fridge.

It's really expensive and difficult to get rid of this stuff legally is you are running a business. Then they wonder why fly tipping is a problem.

I can take batteries or dead boards to the local tip for recycling as an individual but they won't take commerical waste - any private contractors I've tried want to work with skips or truck fulls. Least cost I've been quoted for electronic waste is £200 for wheely bin sized crate. So I'm saving it up untill I have enough.

MK
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0 Andrew J over 2 years ago in reply to michaelkellett

It's not commercial, just me and just an old syringe that isn't empty. It was getting hard to use so I took the opportunity to get some fresh when someone else was paying!
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