[Grovenet] It's Not Easy Being Green

[Ron D'Eau Claire]

---From Electronic Design at
http://www.elecdesign.com/Articles/Index.cfm?AD=1&AD=1&ArticleID=15026

CFLs (compact fluorescent lamps) have been in the news recently because a
California legislator (Assemblyman Lloyd Levine, D-Van Nuys) wants to
mandate "Dairy Queen" bulbs to replace incandescents. That same week, the
Australian government announced plans to phase out incandescent light bulbs
and replace them with more energy-efficient compact fluorescent bulbs across
the country...

...the fact that politicians around the world are warming up to CFLs is just
goofy, and the reason can be summed up in one word: mercury.

The news outlet that got it right was National Public Radio (NPR), although
it took some listener thumping to get their attention. The original feature
aired on "All Things Considered" (ATC) on Feb. 8, 2007, a puff piece about
Wal-Mart's push to sell 100 million compact fluorescent bulbs in 2007. The
result, Wal-Mart said, would be grand savings on the part of consumers-to
the tune of $3 billion over the life of the bulbs. There was a lot of happy
talk after that.

The following Thursday, when ATC aired its segment with listener responses,
there was a moment of clarity. NPR Environmental Editor Elizabeth Shogren
responded on-air to a listener's criticism with some hard facts. She had
talked to John Skinner, executive director of the Solid Waste Association of
North America, a national trade association for trash and recycling
companies and dumps. Skinner noted that while it's legal in most states for
people to throw out compact bulbs, it's not a good idea because the bulbs
often break before they get to the landfill. As a result, trash collectors
can be exposed to very high levels of mercury or the mercury could seep into
the soil.

Shogren went on to look into recycling the bulbs. She discovered that even
cities that have curbside recycling wouldn't take the bulbs; they have to go
to a hazardous waste collection bay. The closest center to Shogren's home
turned out to be 95 miles away. (One good source of this information is
www.lamprecycle.org. They list 25 companies in the U.S. where you can drop
off your CFLs, and 30 that have some kind of pickup service.)

Then Shogren talked to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). An EPA
spokesperson said that the agency had been urging stores that sell the bulbs
to help recycle them, but that so far the biggest sellers of the bulbs
haven't stepped up to the play. The one company that does recycle its CFLs
is Ikea. (Wal-Mart was mentioned specifically; but they had not, at that
time, responded to Shogren.)

--------------------------------------

In the meantime General Electric has been developing a high-efficiency
incandescent bulb that is expected to be as efficient as the CFLs but
without the complex electronics in the base to generate the very high
voltages the CFL needs, the mercury or the phosphors that can pollute. That
are expected to be on the market by 2010. 

http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/ge/index.jsp?ndmViewId=news_view&ne
wsId=20070223005120&newsLang=en&ndmConfigId=1001109&vnsId=681

Or 

http://tinyurl.com/3cgl2z

Even here in "green Oregon" people are instructed to throw their
mercury-laden bulbs into their trash bins for pickup in some areas(1)
although Waste Management does ask the people treat the bulbs as hazardous
waste and take them to a recycling center(2)

(1)
http://www.zerowaste.org/publications/CFL/CFL_case_studies.htm#exec_summary

(2) http://www.wmnorthwest.com/guidelines/orfluorescentbulbs.htm

As Kermit often said, "It's not easy being green..." It's equally important
that all too often we don't know how to be green because we get the wrong
information from the media. 

Ron D'Eau Claire