Why do people think CFL's are good when they contain Mercury?

Question

The average CFL contains five milligrams of Mercury. If it breaks in your house and you have small children it could be dangerous, but the bigger risk is when we send 100 million CFL to the dump each year.

What can be done to make CFL's safe or at least how can we dispose of them safely? Is there a way to capture the Mercury?

Answer 1

CFLs are a good idea because of the energy they save. The EPA estimates that if every household in the U.S. swapped one incandescent for a compact fluorescent, it would save enough energy to light 3 million homes each year. That's a significant amount of energy.



The EPA says breaking a bulb doesn't pose a risk in the home, but the agency suggests that if it happens people should sweep up the shards of glass and ventilate the room. The greater concern lies in the idea of millions of bulbs breaking in the trash and releasing poisonous vapor. The mercury in the bulbs can be captured and recycled, so instead of throwing them in the trash people need to take them to a collection agency. Federal officials encourage people to type their ZIP code into the earth911.org web site to find dropoff locations. So far IKEA is the only large retailer with a take-back program, although numerous smaller ones exist.

Answer 2

The reason is that the environmental benefit is seen to outweigh the cost of the mercury (and also of disposing of an existing standard lightbulb that has not burned out yet). There is mercury in the production of electricity, after all. 5mg is the cap that industry has self-mandated on themselves, but the amount in the bulb could be substantially lower.



According to Wikipedia (I did not know this previously, so thanks for educating me as well!), the amount of mercury produced by coal plants exceeds that of the CF bulb for the amount of wattage used/produced, so you are in that case clearly better off using a CF bulb! Here is the relevant portion: "Note that coal power plants are the "the largest uncontrolled industrial source of mercury emissions in Canada".[17] According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), (when coal power is used) the mercury released from powering an incandescent lamp for five years exceeds the total of (a) the mercury released by powering a comparably luminous CFL for the same period and (b) the mercury contained in the lamp.[18] It should be noted, however that the "EPA is implementing policies to reduce airborne mercury emissions. Under regulations issued in 2005, coal-fired power plants will need to reduce their emissions by 70 percent by 2018."[19]. This change will lengthen the term before CFLs are better than incandescents. If CFLs are recycled and the mercury reclaimed, the equation tilts towards CFLs, and if non-coal sources of electricity are used, the equation tilts toward incandescents.". (Check out the cool graphic at wikipedia).



You can often return the used bulb to the place of purchase, and if not to the manufacturer, for safer disposal.



CFs for the win!

Answer 3

Wow! I really had no idea this was the case! Do regular fluorescent have mercury also?

Maybe somebody (perhaps the government, but I doubt that'll ever happen...) should create a special processing plant for disposing of CFLs, or perhaps even making them reusable.

By the way, a CFL is a Compact Fluorescent Lightbulb.

Answer 4

I was unaware of this until a few weeks ago as well. Then I read about it in Kevin Trudeau's book. So, I'll be recycling the ones I have and replacing them with broad spectrum lighting, much better and healthier for human beings than fluorescent. One other thing concerning CFL's, if you read up on them, you'll find they loose their 'cost effectiveness' if they are in rooms where you switch them on and off many times. They were meant for areas that stay lit most of the time.

Answer 5

The answer is in CFL recycling... currently most people are unaware of it:

http://www.lightbulbrecycling.com/index.html

Answer 6

I am hoping to save money on my electric bill by using CFL's



I'm also hoping to save energy and help the country use less oil.



We must reduce our dependance on middle east oil so we do not have to fight wars over it.

Answer 7

WTF is a CFL?