I took “waste stream” to mean “the process after a device is no longer used.” Some waste is recycled, some is out in landfill, and more than should ends up in nature.
Most of the time, these types of things would be recycled. But obviously that doesn’t happen all the time. The rest of the time will be dominated by landfill, but that’s actually not that huge a problem. It’s not like the metals are going to grow legs and run around irradiating stuff any more than a Duracell. The last group is the environment proper, but keep in mind there’s already radioactive shit out and about in the world. You can find radioactive rocks literally just laying on the ground. It’s not actually that much of a danger unless a large amount of radioactive material (or a small amount of highly irradiated material which this is not) manages to find its way into a pile.
Honestly, I’d be more concerned about the conventional pollution aspect than the radiation.
…so let’s make it worse?
With the amounts being talked about, it’s not really that much of a concern. We aren’t talking about putting a demon core in your pocket.
One individual Duracell is also pretty harmless but I sure am glad that people don’t throw them into nature.
I mean yeah, but no one is talking about tossing either into nature.
That is exactly what I commented on. See OC:
I took “waste stream” to mean “the process after a device is no longer used.” Some waste is recycled, some is out in landfill, and more than should ends up in nature.
Most of the time, these types of things would be recycled. But obviously that doesn’t happen all the time. The rest of the time will be dominated by landfill, but that’s actually not that huge a problem. It’s not like the metals are going to grow legs and run around irradiating stuff any more than a Duracell. The last group is the environment proper, but keep in mind there’s already radioactive shit out and about in the world. You can find radioactive rocks literally just laying on the ground. It’s not actually that much of a danger unless a large amount of radioactive material (or a small amount of highly irradiated material which this is not) manages to find its way into a pile.
Honestly, I’d be more concerned about the conventional pollution aspect than the radiation.