I heard on NPR that compact fluorescents are lined with mercury as part of their manufacturing and this renders them as hazardous waste which needs to be recycled appropriately. Whooda thunkit?

The bulb in my garage was guaranteed for 7 years and lasted 9. I never read the package and had tossed the old one in the garbage. Guilty, but now informed.

It may be new to you Cocoabee. But it has been well know fact for years that all fluorescents bulbs contain mercury.

Actually ALL Flourescents (compact or otherwise) are classified a hzardous waste. The bulbs of all flourescents contain phosphorous. Phosphorous in this form is hazardous because contact with moisture and oxygen causes an exothermic reaction (it burns). What's more it will continue to do so until all the oxygen is expelled from the immediate area.

As far as mercury though, the new generation of CFs (made in the last 2 years or so) are mecury free (BTW the mecury was in the starter - in the base of the bulb). It was replaced in the newer CFs with a "piezo-electric" (crystal) starter.

I think I have been duped

Last month I thought I was doing a 'good' thing when I told my DH that we would be doing a 'good' thing by investing in these new compact fluorescents bulbs....so we bought three of them.
Then when we get home and take them out of their little boxes, my poor eye sight finally catches sight of LAMP CONTAINS MERCURY, Manage in Accord with Disposal Laws.

There is a web address on the package,
www.lamprecycle.org
.....maybe ya'll will have luck with that one? because Louisiana sucks!

there is a toll free #, 1-800-435-4448

I am dissapointed about this.

I will however check with our nearby AF base, which has a small recyle center, hopefully they with accept these bulbs at a reasonable disposal fee.


Robin

As long as you recycle the bulb I have no problems using the bulbs. They do use less elec and they do produce nice seedlings.

My local electrical supply house has a bulb recycle program, they usually take them back free of charge if you purchase the replacement from them.

The garbage haulers will no longer take bulbs.

Thanks, Bill. Mebbe we can spread the word so that other poor saps like meself can do the "right thing" in a conscious manner.

Robin - good to see you again. I guess that by the time the bulbs burn out, the Feds will have stepped in to accomodate recycling everywhere. NZ and Australia have programs in place to eventually ban all incandescent bulbs. We shouldn't be too far behind...

I knew about the CF's containing Mercury, but not Phosphorus...Now I wish I didn't toss it...But here's an alternative: A LED light. Here's the URL addy:

http://www.cetsolar.com/12ledbulb.htm

I am going to order one, as soon as I can figure out how to..

quote:

Originally posted by Chris J.:
I knew about the CF's containing Mercury, but not Phosphorus...Now I wish I didn't toss it...But here's an alternative: A LED light. Here's the URL addy:

http://www.cetsolar.com/12ledbulb.htm


I am going to order one, as soon as I can figure out how to..

One word of wary on these is I have yet to see one that puts off as much light as they claim. I have checked the lamps on a footcandle per footcandle (or lumen per lumen) basis and typically the LED lamps are about half the output they are claiming when they state wattage equivalency.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=e-LOtKIIKcg

How is it companies can profit from all sorts of toxic and hazardous materials released into the mass-consumer market and not bear any responsibility for the disposal of these products or the waste stream they generate? I've gone to great effort to dispose of or recycle old electronics, paint, household chemicals in a safe and responsible manner, but I know I'm in the minority. Most people don't think twice about dumping such stuff in the landfill, down the drain or into the environment.

BTW - do halogen bulbs contain any toxic substances? How should they be disposed of?

To the best of my knowledge, halogens are disposed of the same as you'd dispose of an incandescent.

Re the CFLs: Here's a few sites to find where and how you can recycle and/or dispose of them. BTW: I recently read that IKEA and Home Depot have initiated a recycling program for CFLs. You might contact them as well.

http://epa.gov/bulbrecycling/

http://earth911.org/

http://lighterfootstep.com/how-to-live-with-cfls.html

I do not recollect the numbers, but I researched this several years ago and was more than satisfied that accross the board, CFL's are both an economic and environmental improvement over incandescents.

Yes, they contain small amounts of toxic chemicals. However, the same toxic chemicals, and worse, are released by the power plants that produce the electricity. Because the CFLs use significantly less electricity, the power plants release less of the toxic chemicals compared to a standard incandescent lamp.

The quantity of toxic emmissions avoided by a CFL greatly exceeds the quantity contained in a CFL, I believe, by several orders of magnitude.

CFLs are long lasting, and new enough on the market, that we are only just starting to see a wave of worn out lamps. I am pleased that Home Depot has stepped up to the plate with a recycling program this soon. I hope that consumer demand causes other retailers to follow Home Depot's lead. Personally, I would hope that states would institute a deposit law, similar to the ones that are in place for beverage containers.

If consumers follow through by recycling CFLs, their use will result in significant reductions of mercury, cadmium, and phosphorous emmissions from power plants. Further, if the materials in CFL's are substantially reclaimed and the components in the base/ballast are remanufactured, the overall impact of CFLs on the environment will be significantly positive.

quote:

Originally posted by wd8izh:

quote:

Originally posted by Chris J.:
I knew about the CF's containing Mercury, but not Phosphorus...Now I wish I didn't toss it...But here's an alternative: A LED light. Here's the URL addy:

http://www.cetsolar.com/12ledbulb.htm


I am going to order one, as soon as I can figure out how to..

One word of wary on these is I have yet to see one that puts off as much light as they claim. I have checked the lamps on a footcandle per footcandle (or lumen per lumen) basis and typically the LED lamps are about half the output they are claiming when they state wattage equivalency.

I too have been anticipating the development of a high output white LED. There is progress being made but the technology is not ready for prime time yet. I hope that by the time my second set of CFLs wear out, the LEDs will be ready.

Several years ago a friend of my who is an electrician told me that he felt that by 2020, advances in battery technology and energy efficiency would all but eliminate his trade. We would have lamps and other electrical appliances that could run for days or weeks on a charge and they would be docked at a low voltage charging station when they got low, largely eliminating the need for the plethora of electrical outlets as required in NEC 210.

He predicted that the "storage problem" that attends solar and wind generated power would be solved by millions of devices powered by rechargeable batteries. He suggested that each device would be equipped with a computer chip that would communicate with a central power center. Each of the millions of devices could feed power back into the grid if generating capacity was low. Conversely each device would be able to accept a charge to absorb power when generating capacity was at a surplus.

I do not believe we are headed for an apocalypse, but I do believe that in the next ten years we will see a pace and breadth of change that is both faster and wider than the technological advances of the past 20 years.

Regardless of personal beliefs about peak oil or global warming, I beleive that if our nation seizes the initiative and makes it a national goal to substantially reduce our consumption of energy in ALL forms, we will touch off a wave of innovation, wealth creation, and technical leadership that will put the US back on top as the world's leading economy as well as the world leader in standards of living and quality of life.

A deposit law would be a book keeping nightmare on a long life item like a CFL. Stores that go out of business keeping the profits; or having some sort of state scheme where the state takes the money and reimburses retailers when the deposit is repaid (and you thought Kramer & Newman hauling bottles to Michigan for the 10 cent deposit was bad...)

That said, some sort of manufacturer paid recycling program for consumer electronics and similiar items containing hazardous materials is not a bad idea -- to collect costs for waste management up front.

I just think doing it at the level of consumers / stores is much more of a paperwork and accounting nightmare then it would be worth.

I was an early adopter of CFLs; I only have a couple left I haven't pulled out. I have *heard* the new ones are much better in respect to the quality of light they produce. I despise the color quality on my CFLs, and even when I tried re-using them in the garage it was a no go since with the lights on I couldn't listen to the radio stations I liked. I'm still very gun shy to buy them again -- all I buy is GE Reveal incandescent bulbs today, and unless a CFL comes out that matches their quality of light that's all I will buy.

Bill Coors couldn't have said it better Matt. But the world is changing. Resources are scarcer and we need to get ahead of the curve using them more wisely. Creating market incentives to encourage the return and reuse of items which can be substantially reused can help, and besides beverage bottles, are already in place for hundreds of items that contain toxins and high quantities of reuseable materials. Car batteries immediately come to mind...