I just read on Yahoo! News that Canada and Austrailia are planning to ban what they term %26quot;inefficient%26quot; incandescent light bulbs in favor of compact fluorescent bulbs. They claim the incandescent bulbs promote greenhouse emissions and the use of fluorescent bulbs will not only cute down on these emissions, but save users approximately $44 per year.
My question, don%26#039;t the fluorescent bulbs contain small amounts of mercury and wouldn%26#039;t this pose an environmental risk in the disposal of the bulbs? In America, one must have an EPA permit to dispose of them... so what happens if other countries are just throwing them away? No mention of disposal problems or solutions was mentioned in the article, but I%26#039;m curious how this will effect the environment if it goes through. The article states that incandescent bulbs will not be prohibited when they are the only appropriate alternative but still...
Additional Details
1 year ago
I went to the EPA%26#039;s website and they do give information regarding the proper disposal of CFL%26#039;s. I was under the understanding that a disposal center, not idividuals, must have an EPA permit to dispose of items containing mercury. Perhaps I did not make that point clear to the poster who suggested I review my source for that information.I do agree that CFL%26#039;s provide more light and less heat but I think I will always be concerned with the idea that mercury is there and so available and on such a large scale, I don%26#039;t honestly know what%26#039;s worse... the greenhouse effect or the potential hazards from those who will not dispose of these items in the proper manner.
support@howtosaveenergy.co.uk Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
Energy Saving Trust
Other Answers (6)
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Fluorescent light bulbs do contain a little bit of mercury. Many municipalities do have special dumping sites for them. Some cities will even let you drop off fluorescent light bulbs, batteries, and smoke detectors right at City Hall!!
Failing that, the local IKEA store around here has a special garbage bin just for disposal of fluorescent light bulbs.
Maybe the larger grocery stores should do the same? -
Yes, they have mercury in them and it%26#039;s definitely a problem. They also have small circuit boards which would have lead in the solder.
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You are correct. Life is full of tradeoffs. The big question here is this: Are the energy savings worth the environmental pollution of the extra mercury? Now some will say that the bulbs can be recyled and the mercury recovered. While true, it will take energy to do this. So, will the energy required to keep the mercury out of the environment be greater than the energy savings from using these bulbs?
The answer is no one yet knows.
Additional:
An letter from a reader to the Editor of The Wall Street Journal (4/25) brought up an interesting point: While conventional bulbs give off more heat than light the heat is not wasted as the light is usually on in an indoor room in the winter and serves to add heat to the room thus lowering the amount of fuel the furnace has to burn to heat the room. -
Well first of all when it comes to incandescent vs. fluorescent the real issue isn%26#039;t green house gas but it isn%26#039;t. the real issue is that with an incandescent bulb most of the energy is converted to heat not to light like we want. With fluorescent however there is far less energy wasted. And when you say that one must have a permit from the EPA to dispose of one I would double check where you got that information because that rule would just be so impractical. With the massive number of fluorescent bulbs being sold having all those people have to get a permit that%26#039;s ludicrous.