CFLs

That would be 1,100 pounds of Mercury, but Wal-Mart got a commitment from their supplies to reduce the Mercury so Wal-Mart will only be distributing 700 or 800 pounds of Mercury. That’s just Wal-Mart. How many CFLs are being sold? How many have been sold without the consumer knowing that CFLs contain Mercury?

I had worry about mercury left over from the '90's. I thought diverting a few tons of mercury from the landfills would make a difference. I found out the greatest threat is to pregnant women and children.

The Country did a great job reducing Mercury emissions during the ‘90’s. Between 1990 and 1999 the U.S. Emissions of Human-Caused Mercury went down from 220 tons to 115 tons per year. Now it’s environmentally correct to add tons of Mercury directly to the landfills?

The US EPA Fact Sheet from the '90's on the Oakland School District web site. It states:

Safe cleanup precautions: If a CFL breaks in your home, open nearby windows to disperse any vapor that may escape, carefully sweep up the fragments (do not use your hands) and wipe the area with a disposable paper towel to remove all glass fragments. Do not use a vacuum. Place all fragments in a sealed plastic bag and follow disposal instructions above.

We could not find the fact sheet on the US EPA site.

Please understand

Mercury is the only element that evaporates and sinks to the bottom of a lake.

It requires 1/70^th of a teaspoon of Mercury to contaminate a 25 acre lake to the point that the fish are non-eatable (Union of Concerned Scientists).

That’s about 200 Compact Florescent Lights.

Wal-Mart is committed to 100,000,000. That’s 500,000 25 acre lakes.

There is good Mercury and bad Mercury. The good becomes bad when it enters a lake, river, stream or ocean.

Environmental Correctness

The “environmental correctness” for CFLs comes from an EPA report that says powering a CFL from a coal-powered electrical plant would generate 3.3 mgs of Mercury where a incandescent light would generate 13.3 mgs of Mercury.

That correctness supersedes notifying the consumers that most CFLs contain Mercury, how to clean-up a broken CFL and how to properly recycle a CFL.

Bigger Picture

Here’s a different way to look at the amount of Mercury CFLs save. Only 25% of U.S. electrical power comes from coal-fired electrical plants, and only 25% of that is for residential and only 15% of residential power is used on lighting. The total Mercury emissions for coal power plants in 1999 was 100,000 pounds. 100,000 pounds x 25% x 25% x 15% = 937 pounds.

Put simply, if you do not get your power from a coal plant, you will probably be adding to mercury waste by using CFLs, not saving it.

"Out-sourcing" mercury pollution

Domestic mercury pollution doesn't really make much difference.

Our "want" for gold jewelry creates 10 times as much mercury emissions as does our coal-fired electrical plants.

According to the UNEP, gold processing in the third-world countries accounts for 650 to 1,000 tons of mercury emissions. U.S. Coal is only 50 tons. 80% of the gold coming to the U.S. is for jewelry. If only half of gold's production was for U.S. jewelry, it would equal 325 to 500 tons.

If you want to turn a red-neck into an environmentalist, tell him that buying gold jewelry for his wife is harmful to the planet.

Let’s revisit Compact Florescent Lights

Do CFLs save energy?

No. They use energy differently.

A CFL produces 12 watts of light

An incandescent produces 12 watts of light and 48 watts of heat.

Is heat good or bad?

If the air conditioner is on, heat is bad.

If the heat is on, what’s the efficiency coefficient between the incandescent heat right next to you and the “house heat” you are using.

If it is oil or wood heat, the incandescent wins.

Are CFLs easy to recycle?

Yes.

Put the burned out lights in a bag next to your new lights.

(Put your used batteries in the same bag.)

Twice a year when your City has its Hazardous Waste Day, go to 10 neighbors.

Ask them if you can take their burned out CFLs

Your neighbor will either say “Thanks” or “No”.

If they say “No” it for one of three reasons:

1. They don’t use CFLs.

2. They don’t have any burned out.

3. They didn’t know that they were hazardous waste.

You can help on 2 of the 3.

Recycling Maniac

When I moved from Northern California to Phoenix three years ago, I packed a burned out compact florescent light.

It was in a bag next to the new bulbs (same bag I put batteries in) when we were moving, so it came with us. It took me two years in Arizona before I got around to going to the City Hazardous Waste Day. By then I had two burned out lights and a bunch of batteries.

I think it is environmentally irresponsible to promote or distribute a product that becomes a hazardous waste without making sure the consumer knows it is a hazardous waste, the safety precautions and knows how to properly discard of the hazard.