Addendum to my previous post

[marrael]

CFLs contain mercury. They cannot work without mercury. At this moment, this is little hope of there ever being a mercury-less compact florescent bulb because the light produced by them comes partly from exciting mercury atoms.

Please do NOT, NOT, NOT, under any circumstances, throw compact florescent bulbs into your trash. Look up how Household

Comments

[jamiam]

At this moment, this is little hope of there ever being a mercury-less compact florescent bulb because the light produced by them comes partly from exciting mercury atoms.

Inaccurate: any gas in a near-vacuum will ionize and produce light when subjected to electric current--fluorescents work the same as neon lights, for example. Except that neon lights contain, well, neon. The problem is a.) finding one that will emit a white-ish light and b.) finding one that is readily available/easy to manufacture. Mercury alternatives would almost certainly cost two to ten times as much.

At this point, I would be almost willing to say that mercury poses less of a long-term threat to peoples health than the next decade's projected increase in atmospheric greenhouse gases.

[naruvonwilkins]

Trying to define environmental catastrophe by a less/more determination is kind of like deciding whether you want your car to cut you into ribbons with sheet metal or simply explode on impact. There's a third option.

[marrael]

I'm a terrible cynic. I can worry about greenhouse gases, but will still agonize about mercury because I worry about the neurological development of future generations. (And current generations actually...)

Thanks for the clarification on florescent bulbs.

[rudi]

Yeah, the info on mercury content hasn't kept up with the push to switch to CFL's -- even here in Maine, where mercury is fairly big in the public consciousness, there's a state program offering incentives to switch, but not as much discussion of what to do with them once they wear out. I don't think I heard anything about it until I noticed the mercury disclosure on the lightbulb label (and who reads lightbulb labels?)

Part of the trick is not just being aware of this, but remembering it X years from now when the CFL's start burning out :)

Apparently, with the sources that most our power is coming from here (according to a newspaper article that I saw that did address this), even CFLs that are improperly disposed put less mercury into the environment than traditional lightbulbs -- which points out how much mercury is being produced by electricity consumption of all kinds all the time. There's a mercury footprint to think about as a carbon one -- so thanks for the reminder.

[marrael]

I was a little afraid I sound like I'm against CFLs, but I'm just weary of the lack of knowledge of how to dispose them properly, not against the bulbs themselves... too much. Actually it goes for all household hazardous waste, cept at least no one has been celebrating chemical cleaners as great for the environment...

[rudi]

If you're trying motivate people to do a good thing (and part of the motivation is that they get to feel some satisfaction for having done something all green and enviro-friendly), you really should make sure you haven't also caused them to do something else that isn't good.

[rudi]

That was me, BTW. Been having LJ log-in trouble lately.

[naruvonwilkins]

We shouldn't switch to CFLs - we should switch to LEDs. They're much more expensive, but will last longer than any of us will.

[marrael]

I happily agree.

[naruvonwilkins]

My roommate has CFLs, and if any burn out, I plan to buy LED bulbs.

what about propane tanks as haz waste

[naruvonwilkins]

these are the guys: http://www.uscylinderdisposal.com