Low Impact

Compact Fluorescent Lightbulbs (CFLs) are fantastic little inventions - they use only a quarter (or less) of the electricity of an incandescent globe, and can last 6 to 10 times as long. It turns out that replacing 4 of your 100 watt incandescent globes with CFL alternatives can save almost half a tonne of CO2 emissions every year. As an added bonus, when you factor in the savings on your electricity bill with their longer life, they end up saving you money over old-style globes.

(You might also be interested in having a look at this post on Low Impact, with hints and tips on how to best to use CFL lights.)

Still, there is one issue to be aware of with CFLs, and that is mercury. CFLs need a tiny amount of mercury inside them to actually produce the light, and mercury is one of those nasty elements. Specifically, mercury can be a neurotoxin if ingested or absorbed into the body - that’s a bad thing!

But to keep things in perspective, each CFL contains around 5 milligrams of mercury. Your traditional mercury thermometer contains around 700 to 1000 milligrams of mercury - 200 times as much! But, even this small amount adds up, and if you just throw your old CFLs in the bin, that mercury will eventually come out in landfill, and leach into the soil. No great problem if we just consider the 1 or 2 bulbs you might throw out in a year, but when a city of millions are doing the same, those 5 milligrams can add up.

The solution is recycling. Facilities exist which recycle the plastic and glass that makes up the CFL and just as importantly, reclaim the mercury for either recycling, or safe disposal. In the U.S, there’s a growing number of options. Companies like Wal-Mart and True Value apparently both offer CFL collection and recycling services.

In Australia, unfortunately, there are no states where you can just throw your CFLs in your normal recycling bin. However, pretty much all states have some sort of facility where you can drop your old CFLs, and some states have established, or are in the process of establishing, pick-up services.

The following webpage at the Australian Department of the Environment and Water Resources has some useful information about exactly what recycling and collection facilities are available in each of the states and territories:

http://www.environment.gov.au/settlements/waste/lamp-mercury.html

So now you know how to properly dispose of them, you can get on with upgrading all your lights to CFLs!

Categories: efficiency, environment, recycle

Tags: cfl, efficiency, fluorescent, mercury, recycle