How can ceramics be recycled? Does the answer vary greatly depending on glaze or other factors, and if so, how can those factors be determined (i.e. how can I tell if a glaze contains lead or not)?
My municipality says ceramics and pottery should either be re-used somehow (e.g. ceramic tiles donated if unneeded) but otherwise should be discarded as trash. I've read about how broken pottery, if it cannot be repurposed, could be smashed up and restored to clay which can either be absorbed by soil/compost or re-used for new pottery. I don't know much about pottery though, and I imagine that 'break down to raw materials' approach is only appropriate for certain types of pottery finishing. For example, if a ceramic was finished with a lead-containing glaze, I wouldn't want to add that to compost which would go to my vegetable garden and I probably shouldn't add that to any soil fill in any case. Also, breaking down any glazed ceramic back to dust would result in not just regular clay but also the glaze, which I imagine is a mixture not as suitable for making pottery.