# Not for the squeamish - Precious Metals Recovery



## Anonymous (Apr 4, 2008)

Maybe worth while looking into permits etc. Crematorium Reclamation of Precious Metals


----------



## goldsilverpro (Apr 4, 2008)

Good source. I didn't look for that type business but a small crematorium in LA used to bring us 30 oz per month.


----------



## Palladium (Apr 4, 2008)

ok. At first i thought teeth and what have you was sort of strange. Then comes the issue of reclaiming Pgm's from medical waste. Now were talking Dr Death. I'm going to need some time on this one. :shock: 

Can anybody top this one.


----------



## Harold_V (Apr 5, 2008)

goldsilverpro said:


> Good source. I didn't look for that type business but a small crematorium in LA used to bring us 30 oz per month.



One of my customers regularly sent me values recovered from cremations. Small lots, however. He was a jewelery benchman that had a connection unknown to me.

Harold


----------



## Lou (Apr 5, 2008)

Ah yes, one of the major sources of mercury pollution--cremation of people with dental amalgam. 


Dental gold is very good stuff and quite high in values. No harm to inquire of some crematory.


----------



## peter i (Apr 5, 2008)

We had a scandal in Denmark a few years ago. The workers at a “funeral association” (you save up for your own funeral) had a nice little “second income” from stripping the bodies of rings, watches et cetera and sifting through the ashes after cremation.

I have no problems about reclaiming the values, but they are the property of the family, and they should decide what happen to them. What happened above, is simple grave robbing.


----------



## Recyclebiz_com (Apr 12, 2008)

Crematoriums are NOT a major source of mercury pollution, they contribute less than 1% of total Hg pollution according to government statistics.
You're looking at pretty low volumes of emissions from crematoria as compared to your industrial sources, such as any coal-burning power plant. This is why the term "Mad as a hatter" has NOT been replaced by "Mad as a mortician".
Right or wrong, mercury has a stigma about it, primarily fostered by the EPA, way out of proportion to its environmental impact. We had a local junior high school here in Utah which had a spill of a couple tablespoons of liquid mercury in a science lab.
They shut down the school for a day, and cleanup costs were in the ten thousand dollar range. What a complete waste of time and money. This institutional paranoia, is pushed by the government boys (there's no problem so small that a bureauracracy cannot by justified to handle it) who depend on the "crisis du jour" for their livelihood, at our expense.
They have, in the process, just about killed any opportunity to get silver batteries refined at any kind of a reasonable charge, and made it next to impossible to make any money from scrap dental amalgam, unless you are duly certified and blessed by the government to handle mercury wastes. This, of course, is so expensive a proposition that hardly anyone is able or willing to jump through all the EPA, federal and state, hoops and paperwork.
Don't know about you, but I sleep a lot better at night knowing that dentists find it much easier and much more profitable to dump their mercury wastes down the drain than to pay a "mercury disposal company" to "handle" it (along with its 4 troy ounces of contained silver per pound), at a cost of many $$$ per container.
THAT is what I call a sweet business model, getting waste generators to pay me to haul their precious metals away for them, and charge THEM for the privelege! Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to make us any safer or healthier, does it?

Scott - recyclebiz.com


----------



## Lou (Apr 12, 2008)

Scott, considering the number employed and the small size of the industry, they put out more than you think. What government statistics are you basing this off of? I seem to recall reading a gov't report that said more regulations are needed for crematoria to reduce mercury pollution.

While I will agree that it is not a major (I overstated it, I apologize for my exaggeration) contributor, but it is significant.


----------



## Recyclebiz_com (Apr 14, 2008)

http://www.cremationassociation.org/html/pressrelease6.html - based on US EPA studies

http://www.cremationassociation.org/html/article-mercury.html

http://www.healthandenvironment.org/?module=uploads&func=download&fileId=53

Just for the record, I do not necessarily disagree with you - I believe that reducing Hg emissions is a worthwhile goal. I just don't see the need for a new generation of bureaucrats to oversee it!

Kind regards - Scott - recyclebiz.com


----------



## Lou (Apr 14, 2008)

Well when you're right, you're right Scott. I think that was the same article I read (albeit it's not direct from the EPA, but rather from a potentially biased source). Most likely I added two decimal places to the figure. My mistake-- I am wrong.


----------

