Question about disposal of cartridges

Powder is not primarily nitrogen, it is primarily plastic ...
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I don't think "plastic" is the right word.

Nitrocellulose.

Gun Cotton

The origin and basic component of "smokeless powder".

Wood or other plant fiber, treated with nitric acid, in just the right way, with specific processes and additives, and you get single base powder.

Add nitroglycerine into the process in just the right way, and you get a double based powder.

Nowdays other chemicals are also involved, to control burn rate and other effects.
 
Plastic is a good enough term for it,it's actually considered a plastic at lower, non explosive levels, called celluloid, cellophane, etc. Powder is treated and stuffed plastic. I don't know what the breakdown rate is in open air, but there are celluloid products that were made when it was first created still hanging around. Photo film that's almost a century old.

The treatment will leach out and then the mass will slowly break down. It probably won't break down within a number of years while stuck in turf. Regardless of this consideration, a pound of powder scattered over 100 feet of turf will be inert for a while, slowly decompose, and eventually, release a fraction of a pound of nitrogen, but maybe as a gas?

Now black powder is a different thing. Traces of sulfur are needed for plants, potassium nitrate is a great fertilizer, and the carbon is inert. Five tons of bp would make a golf course giggle.
 
I'm not convinced plastic is the correct term, though it could be, plastic has many definitions, depending on context. I will have to do some research.

Its not the common term used when discussing smokeless powder though...

Normally, when I think of something as a plastic, I think of something with a petro-chemical base.

again, I'll need to do some study, its been a long time since I was involved in that branch of chemistry. Cellulose is the base material for many product, some of them could be considered "plastics", some aren't. Most paper is still made from cellulose (today, generally a wood pulp,). Though other plant fibers are also used for different kinds of paper.

Take a cotton lab coat, spill some Nitric acid on it, don't rinse it out, and after a little while, the coat will burst into flames. Rinse the nitric acid out, just enough to prevent self ignition, and you get a fiber material that will ignite easily and burn VERY fast. This is the origin of guncotton, which was developed into gunpowder for artillery and small arms, over time it became the smokeless powder we know today.
 
You get it, there are varying degrees of correctness in this sort of thing. Words are vague. Look in some places and it's only polymers and artificial, only petrochemical, there are bio plastics, like soy polymers. Wiki lists the various nitrocellulose as plastic.

A guy was supposed to have made gun cotton in chem lab, took the washed mass, and globbed it into Bunsen burners. They later popped when ignited.

I throw smokeless 's plastic because it is based on celluloid, and also to point out that it's a durable product. We could cast it or machine it into coffee cups. I'd love a coffee cup made of bullseye.
 
Pull the bullet, reserve the powder, and burn it off on the 4th of July.

I was going to write some suggestions as to how to do this safely, but that might reduce the number of "fail" videos I find on youtube.

So ya'll be sure to have the camera rolling when you try my idea. :D
 
Pull it.

Dump the powder in the garden. Nitrates are good for the soil.

Pop the primer and trash can it.

Reuse bullet and case.
 
I will generally try and reuse the round. If it works, then it tells me my gun is dirty or malfunctioning. If it doesn't work a 2nd time, I pull the bullet, dump the powder, don't worry about the primer and toss the rest of the cartridge in the can.
 
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