My entire professional career has been in environmental protection. My college education was focused on that and my first professional job was with a newly-formed US EPA working on the infamous Cuyahoga River and other rivers in Ohio. I have seen many changes in environmental regulations and attitudes. At the beginning of my career it was “Who the hell are you and what do you want?” At the end of my career I was used to industry compliance officials saying to me “Don, tell me what we have to do and we will do it”.
James, I am sure your company has made changes in production to comply with industry-wide regulations for reducing hazardous materials in finished products sold in North America and the Eurozone and maybe other locations. Lead is one of those regulated materials. Please join me in enlightening the audiophile community by discouraging the use of lead shot in speaker stands. It would be helpful if you could post something here and on the website pages for speaker stands that Bryston markets.
Everyone please note:
When you sell your speaker stands be sure and tell potential buyers that you contaminated them with a hazardous substance.
Also note that when you remove the lead or lead/sand mix to make the items lighter for shipping the fill is a hazardous waste and must be disposed of in accordance with state and federal regulations. I worked in environmental compliance for 20 years so this is not just an opinion---it's the law. Separating the lead from sand is virtually impossible and even if it was possible the abrasive sand would probably still contain levels of the soft lead that would be classified as hazardous waste.
Most people are not going to take the time to try to recycle lead shot especially if it is mixed with sand. But the recycling problem does not end there. I called a couple of the larger recycling companies in my area. They said they recycled lead but not in shot form. They are not set up to handle loose material.
But it is not just the disposal of lead that is a problem. The mining and smelting of lead (including smelting recycled lead) also creates an environmental consequence in both air and water pollution. Sand is much greener. There is less environmental impact in the production and disposal.
Regulations have been passed to reduce or eliminate even minor amounts of lead and other toxic materials from new electronic equipment and to recover and recycle materials that have been used. Lead is a four letter word. It does not belong in our electronics and it does not belong in our speaker stands.
