Watts Up With That?

In my last entry I raised three questions about Compact Flourescent Light bulbs aka CFL’s

1) What about regular fluorescent tubes? They have mercury too, and sometimes in greater quantity.

2) How do you dispose of these bulbs in they have mercury in them. If you put them in regular trash are you guilty of a crime?

3) Has the hazmat materials response to mercury gotten out of hand?

An astute reader pointed out that for questions 1 and 2, there indeed is a problem. Apparently CFL’s are categorized “universal waste” and shouldn’t be thrown away in the
regular trash under a 2004 state law.

Here’s a list of things that the state doesn’t want you to throw away in your regular trash:
http://www.ciwmb.ca.gov/HHW/Info/default.htm

But there is some ahem, “good” news, and that is that you can take your CFL’s and flourescent tubes out to the hazwaste disposal site at the airport. Like many “household hazardous waste” materials (now including
batteries), Butte County takes bulbs at its recycling facility at the
airport, details here: http://www.recyclebutte.net/hhw.html

Given that disposing of CFL’s requires special handling, I think high efficiency LED bulbs are the answer, I don’t want to put my family in the position of breaking a law for accidental disposal in regular household trash

How much money does it take to screw in a compact fluorescent lightbulb? About $4.28 for the bulb and labor — unless you break the bulb. Then you, like Brandy Bridges of Ellsworth, Maine, could be looking at a cost of about $2,004.28, which doesn’t include the costs of frayed nerves and risks to health.

The details of this really expensive light bulb are here from Financial Post

I like CFL’s, I’ve replaced almost every one of the conventional bulbs in my house with CFL’s

This story raises three problems:

1) What about regular fluorescent tubes? They have mercury too, and sometimes in greater quantity.

2) How do you dispose of these bulbs in they have mercury in them. If you put them in regular trash are you guilty of a crime?

3) Has the hazmat materials response to mercury gotten out of hand?

I think high efficiency LED bulbs are the answer…because as much as I like CFL’s, I don’t want to be put in the position of dealing with the mercury (even though I don’t worry about its safety, I’ve handled mercury before) I don’t want to put my family in the position of having a hazmat response or fines for accidental disposal.