The Urban Legend of Lead Toothpaste Tubes

It's true that toothpaste tubes were made out of lead before World War II. After the war, they started making them from other metals and plastics. However, this thing of melting down lead toothpaste tubes to get like smelted metal out of them is essentially a urban legend. By the 1950s, they put lead back in the toothpaste tubes, but they were one to five percent lead.