How exactly do you dispose of a PCB-containing ballast? I don't need to dispose of any right now, but I'd like to have a straight answer for future reference. In the past, before I knew better, I would just throw them out. According to GE, many states allow non-leaking PCB ballasts to be disposed of in landfills (and for now, I'm going to assume SC is one of them because it seems they're pretty lax about environmental stuff in general). GE doesn't really make it clear, though, if "leaking" means leaking PCB oil or just leaking tar. I'm under the impression that the tar can contain minute amounts of PCBs but it's basically nothing compared to what's in the capacitor. The EPA website isn't much help (go figure). I would think I could take the ballasts to Batteries+Bulbs or a recycling center that accepts ballasts (I have both near me) but I don't know if they'll take leaking ballasts. Does anyone have experience with this sort of thing? What do you do with your dead PCB ballasts?

FYI, all of my PCB ballasts are fused except for a 1968 Universal 446 Fuse-Link, which obviously has an internal fuse.

I once had 2-3 presumed PCB ballasts to dispose of at church. We have what we call EnviroDepots where you can take all kinds of recycling and electronic stuff to dispose of it (and receive a refund on the bottle deposits). That particular time, my mother was going to drop off some bottles so I asked her to take the ballasts as well. I explained to her why I was doing this and that I didn't know if they took PCB ballasts. I had packed them in a box with a label saying "contains PCB". I then said "If they don't take these, and they can't tell you where to get rid of them, ask them where's the garbage can." She subsequently told me they went in the regular trash. From that time, I simply put them in the trash. We have electronic ballasts now so I don't get to deal with that anymore.

What frustrates me is the phrase "Dispose of according to local regulations." Around here, such regulations are either non-existent or no one knows what they are.

What's most likely going to happen if I need to get rid of PCB ballasts is this: I'll see if Batteries+Bulbs or the recycling center take them, and if they don't (or charge something ridiculous for it), they're getting tossed.

On a somewhat-related note, have you seen what some of the fluorescent lamp recycling containers cost? Veolia and others make them; you basically buy a box, put lamps in, and send it off to a recycler with a prepaid shipping label. I think they're mostly intended for commercial use. BUT...the prices are highway robbery! It's a good thing there are other approved ways to dispose of fluorescent lamps, because if there weren't, you can bet I'd be smashing lamps and putting the pieces in the trash. Funnily enough (and one reason I say SC is lax on enviro stuff), a janitor at my school once told me that the guys at the local electric supply place told him that you can just toss fluorescent lamps in the dumpster. I actually do that with the TCLP lamps like Altos (because you can...that's the point of TCLP), but I still take full-mercury ones to Home Depot for recycling.

Normally, in bigger cities, the waste management system is a little tighter on hazardous wastes (they don't want their butts sued off). The local recycle center or waste management may take these off your hands. I wouldn't advise pitching these in regular trash since they will degrade and leak out over time and wind up in the soil and groundwater.

Regardless of what local, state and federal regulations allow or prohibit, I would never toss PCB-containing stuff in the household garbage. Because it will leak out sooner or later. The only correct disposal is proper incineration or chemical breakdown.

GE's reply may be correct legally but it goes to show that it hasn't learnt any ethical lesson from their own sordid past when it comes to PCB:

http://www.epa.gov/hudson/

The only correct disposal is proper incineration or chemical breakdown.

Actually even the incineration is not much usable:
When the required temperature is not reached for sufficient time and with correct composition of the reactants, the burning produces way more toxic substances. Because of the risk of such improper condition in the proper and the toxicity of the results, it is still considered the safest method to "just" store the PCB's for good on proper places in proper containers. In that respect it has really many similarities to a nuclear waste...

Long time ago it was considered to recycle the PCB's from the old equipment and reuse it in the new one, so let it cycle in that way practically forever (the PCB itself is extremely stable, so could be quite well extracted from virtually anything back into the usable form).
But because the collection of the used devices works as it works (so not much), plus the failures leading to leaks, the presence of it in items of daily use (ballasts,...) is a significant risk of uncontrolled release and a suitable replacements were found in the mean time, there is no use for the collected PCB's anymore, even the driving force for efficient recycling (saving money compare to making new material) have stopped working as well.

Correct: improper incineration of PCB(i.e. too low temperature, insufficient oxygen supply) generates even more toxic byproducts like chlorinated dibenzofuranes (PCDF) and the well-known chlorinated dioxines (PCDD). So the conditions needs to be tightly controlled. But it can be done and there are permitted business that offer this service.