Yes, lead can be recovered from leaded glass. Its pretty much an industrial process, involving separating the leaded glass on the picture tube from the unleaded glass, crushing the glass and extracting the metals by chemical means. Some processes are done at high temperatures with the molten glass. Some of the chemicals used are not so user friendly, like Nitric acid, although there are several processes and the chemicals used can be more or less toxic.
Here;s a summary from a 2013 patent on one method of removing metals from glass:
Lead and/or Indium cam be recovered from cullet containing indium and/or lead, such as cullet from CRTs and flat panel displays. A chloride salt melt including AlCl3 is used to dissolve the cullet. The melt may be electrolyzed and the lead and/or indium and other metals may be selectively electro-deposited from the salt melt. The two steps may be combined in a continuous process.The salts in the salt melt are not consumed but can be recycled, with exception of the flux due to formation of chlorine gas and alumina. It is also possible to recover lead and/or indium and other metals from the salt melt by vaporizing the respective chlorides and condensing them, or by leaching the salt phase in water and extracting the metals as hydroxides by hydrometallurgy methods.
Not stuff that is done easily in one's garage! Sounds like at step or two more complicated than recovering gold from electronic waste.
Jon.
Bookmarks