I had a internship recently at a company that does electronics assembly on a small scale, and a presentation was given by some lead free experts in front of many companies. As we have invested heavely in lead free processes we wanted to show what we had done and that we suggested that even our competitors urged to do the same.

The case was that indeed about 90% is used in lead acid batteries and only 3% of the world production goes to solder. (numbers taken from the presentation)

But lead is one of the best recycled metals, about 97% of all car batteries are recycled, but all the electronics ends up in the landfills. So a lot of the lead contamination in the enviroment originates from discarded electronics. Also reclycling becomes more hazardous becouse of all the lead (fumes, incineration).

But they admitted, we are accepting lower quality electronics. The lead R&D designer of our company then asked. "so we are having more failures of electronics, so yes you reduced the amount of toxic lead but now you will increace all the other heavy metals, like tin, silver, copper, antimony, tantalum and many more". The person presenting was silent.

Then another company employee asked "what about whishker forming on pure tin based solders? Its also why large amounts of antimony are added to organ pipes (they are made of tin) to prevent "tin plague".". They replyed that they didnt have conclusive information on tin whiskering as they take a long time to grow. They will think that the copper and silver in the most popular lead free process (SAC alloys) will eliminate the growth of whiskers.

Another question i asked "why not a more general recycling program for electronics? We have now deposits for brown white and green glass, cans, PET bottles, why not electronics? Or electronic appliances?". They didnt give me a conclusive answer, the EU deceided that this would be the best solution.

But what about new regulations from japan? They want to ban all halogens from electronics. The company i worked for had also extensive cable tree (dont know if its the correct english term) manufacturing capabilities, they will try to comply to them soon. But its going to be hard, no teflon no PVC. They will probably switch to silicone rubber but i am no expert.