I belong to a clay club with an average shoot size of 50 people. We shoot 72 clays, twice a month. Assuming we all use 28g lead cartridges that's more than two and a half tonnes of lead each year. The club has been shooting on the site for 50 years (125 tonnes!). It's a couple of acres of woods and fields.
I first did those sums a couple of years ago out of idle interest. I found the answer pretty shocking. My hobby, my club, is responsible for serious heavy metal contamination of a bit of land. I feel really uncomfortable about this.
I wish we would switch to steel. I genuinely would feel sorry for the couple of guys who shoot beautiful bits of history, who would probably have to switch to something more modern. But continuing to spread tonnes of lead shot every year is not OK.
The above is just my club, my situation. If you shoot somewhere that lead shot can be cleaned up (like the trap and skeet ranges at Bisley) then that's different, in my mind. Also target shooting into butts where the sand can be sifted and the lead recovered.
Lead's dead, man, lead's dead.
U.