[Grovenet] It's Not Easy Being Green

[Meredith Bliss]

Why is there all this concern about the mercury in compact fluorescent bulbs, 
as if ordinary fluorescent bulbs haven't always been equally full of mercury? 
Do you suppose stores have been dutifully sending them to hazardous waste 
sites all these years?

On Wednesday 28 February 2007 17:15, Ron D'Eau Claire wrote:
> ---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&n
>e 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
>
>
>
>
>
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-- 
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Just happy to be here, but speaking 
only for myself!
Meredith Bliss --- www.rdrop.com/~mbliss
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