Most energy efficient lightbulbs I found contain MERCURY! Aren't these more harmful than your standard bulbs?

Question

The fine print on the package read that these bulbs need to be disposed thru hazardous waste facilities. Given the additional cost of buying, the trip to the facility, the expense of disposing them accordingly...are these bulbs really "green". I finally found an energy efficient bulb that does not contain mercury. Is this environmental marketing going wrong?

Answer 1

Perhaps you would be so kind as to share the mercury-free energy efficient bulb with the rest of us?

The CFL's are still much better than the incandescent bulbs as they last 5-10 times longer and use a quarter of the energy. You are only exposed to the mercury if they break (and I've dropped quite a few without them breaking) and even then its a minimal amount, you open the windows and leave the room for a while if you're so worried. Clean up is not that difficult either. There is something like 3000 times more mercury in your average thermometer but people don't go crazy over that, and coal plants spew enormous amounts of mercury in the air every day, so using as much less energy as possible is obviously better. And these bulbs are not hard to dispose of, save them in a little bag and then at the end of the year or whenever take them to your city's hazardous waste collection.

Here are some links for you:

http://www.ucsusa.org/publications/green...

http://www.care2.com/greenliving/ask-ann...

http://earth911.org/

Answer 2

These lamps, if they have Mercury, are considered a universal waste. I think they should be recycled so we can reuse any Mercury over and over. This was the intent of the Resource Conservation Recovery Act when it was first passed. I also feel that recycling lights is always better than disposal to landfill, and if this requires a consumer to recycle, even better.

Remember this, the dose makes the poison.

Answer 3

You're right and I was just reading that landfills are becoming concerned about how they are going to deal with the mercury leakage as more and more of those bulbs work their way into the trash.

I have also seen precautions about cleaning up broken bulbs in the home too for the same reason. They are considered hazardous materials.

Answer 4

The amount of mercury used in these bulbs is far less than the mercury that is released into the atmosphere when coal is burned.  So, when you save energy, you are not putting as much mercury, and other pollutants into the atmosphere.  

The mercury that is in a CFL is not in the environment if it is in the bulb, and if you dispose of it properly, it will remain out of the environment.

A different type of technology, LED lighting, will provide us with even more energy efficient light, and these have no mercury in them.

Answer 5

They use less electricity but contain mercury it seems to be a tradeoff of sorts. There are better options, such as LED Lights. I am sure if you look around you can find some LED lightbulbs that do not contain mercury and use less electricity than traditional CFLs

Answer 6

you are absolutely correct. but this will be a boon to the people who mine Mercury from the ground. It will also raise the price of thier stocks and bonds.

S00oo Drink a little mercury for the Gipper !!

Answer 7

Over time the Mercury contained in them burns off and you needn't per se worry about it, however more power to you for calling it to our attention.