Nobody wants heavy lead crystal. It cannot be recycled and cannot be put in the garbage (damages the compacting machinery). What do you do with it?
We have some beautiful inherited pieces, but, as we prepare to downsize our empty nest, we realize that we have to get rid of them. We never used them, which is the symptom that they should be discarded, but don’t know how.
Donate them to Goodwill.
What sort of heavy leaded crystal? You might be able to sell it. Places like Cracker Barrel have warehouses full of stuff and employ people to go out and find more stuff for decoration of businesses.
Try contacting some local or even not local interior designers, you might be surprised at what they buy to put into homes as decor and furnishings.
I just tried looking that up. Quite a few people seem to want it; prices of course vary depending on the particular piece.
Try asking antique stores in your area if they want to buy it, maybe. That would probably be a lot simpler for you than trying to sell it piece by piece yourself; though the latter might get the best prices, if you’re willing to take the time to research the pieces in order to figure out what you’ve actually got.
Ebay it.
Put it on ‘offer up’ for free. People will want it, I promise.
Can you say a little more about the damaging properties of crystal to compacting equipment? As of now, this claim doesn’t pass the smell test.
Post it to Craigslist, the marketplace on Facebook (and there’s probably some FB groups for buy/sell for your specific area) or try dedicated apps like Five Miles.
Yeah. That is a restriction I can’t find anywhere online, so if there are municipalities that have that restriction they are keeping somewhat quiet about it.
I’ve heard that before, with a supposed explanation that the lead gets deposited on the machinery when melted, thus gumming things up, but it was always a friend of a friend who knew someone type of thing.
Certainly an enviromental hazard if you melt it and recast it I would think
I guess I was assuming, but we are enjoined not to put ceramics in the trash for that reason.
All the information I can find for ceramics is “You can’t put it in the recycling, put it in the trash”. You should probably check the online guidelines for your area and see if you’re relying on outdated assumptions.
I really think it would be a shame to throw the stuff out. There are, indeed, people who want it, even if you don’t need the money it’s worth (which, depending on just what you have, could be considerable.)
The issue for landfill/compactor may be that crushing might release the lead, turning the result into hazardous waste that’s not supposed to go into an ordinary landfill or recycling facility. I tried looking this up, but didn’t get very far.
Didn’t want to end up on an FBI or EPA watchlist, hm? 
Short of melting the glass, I don’t see how lead would be released.
Wasn’t even thinking of that. What I got was mostly sites about whether it’s hazardous to drink out of the stuff (probably not very, if you only do it occasionally and don’t let acidic stuff sit in the glass for long stretches of time before drinking; but better safe than sorry, so don’t); or about techniques for recycling various types of glass in general, some of which referred to lead hazards but not with detail about hazards of glass dust; or about hazards of glass dust, but without any specific reference to lead. I did discover that mixing leaded glass in with other glass when melting it down for re-use can cause problems due to different melt temperatures, for what that’s worth. (And I didn’t bother noting the cite for that.)
I suppose I might have attracted the attention of the state police by reading an article about whether feeding people ground glass will actually kill them.
Start an actual “how do I donate or sell” thread here and include a few pictures so we can get a handle on just what all you got. Lord knows it isn’t like I haven’t ended up owning stuff from such a thread myself now and again.
Yeah, this is close to that type of thread. But pictures really do make the discussion.
Too late to edit: lead does leach out of the glass. Drastically increasing the surface area, such as by crushing, seems to me like it would increase the amount of lead that would leach out; as well as make it a lot more likely that bits would get into somebody’s body and therefore leach out inside them. I didn’t succeed in finding a cite to confirm that, though.
You could always send it to me, I would love and cherish it.
