There have been many reports floating about telling about mercury in CFLs. We are here to set the record straight and ensure that you know the right and wrong ways to dispose of your eco-friendly light bulbs.
Is it true that CFLs contain mercury? Why and how much?
CFLs contain a very small amount of mercury sealed within the glass tubing – an average of 5 milligrams (roughly equivalent to the tip of a ball-point pen). Mercury is an essential, irreplaceable element in CFLs and is what allows the bulb to be an efficient light source. By comparison, older home thermometers contain 500 milligrams of mercury and many manual thermostats contain up to 3000 milligrams. It would take between 100 and 600 CFLs to equal those amounts.
Ironically, a regular incandescent light bulb actually releases much more mercury into the environment than a CFL. CFLs prevent mercury from entering our air, where it most affects our health by reducing energy demand at the power plant. The highest source of mercury in our air comes from burning fossil fuels such as coal, the most common fuel used in Michigan to produce electricity. A CFL uses up to 75% less energy than an incandescent light bulb and lasts up to 10 times longer. A power plant will emit 10mg of mercury to produce the electricity to run an incandescent bulb compared to only 2.4mg of mercury to run a CFL for the same time. 7 (mg = milligrams)
What should I do if my CFL breaks?
In the event that you break a CFL, put on a pair of kitchen gloves and wipe the area where the light bulb broke down with paper towels. Air out the area for at least 15 minutes to be safe. Pick up the broken pieces and double bag them and all other materials used to clean up the breakage in Ziploc bags.
Where should I take my broken and/or burned out CFLs?
Because they contain mercury, CFLs need to be disposed of properly. To dispose of them, you may take them to either a place that explicitly takes back used CFLs, like Ikea, or you can take them to your nearest hazardous waste disposal site, which can be found at:http://www.tceq.state.tx.us/assistance/hhw/contacts.html. Unfortunately there are not any other commercial CFL recycling venues at this time, but this problem will hopefully improve soon.
For more information on CFLs and mercury, visit any of the following websites:
http://txipl.org/cfls
http://lamprecycle.org/
http://sustainablog.blogspot.com/2007/09/lighter-footstep-how-to-recycle-cfls.html
http://www.earth911.org/master.asp?s=ls&cat=9&serviceid=192&type=-1
(Photo "Fluorescent Light Bulb" by User p.Gordon used under a Creative Commons-Attribution License.)