Unrecycled bulbs’ mercury escapes

April 10, 2011 at 12:00a.m.

OPTIONS

Finding locations

The National Electrical Manufacturers Association in Washington, D.C., offers information on fluorescent-light recycling at www.lamp-recycle.org.

Home Depot, Ikea, Lowes and many Ace Hardware stores, among other outlets, have free fluorescent-light recycling, even for noncustomers.

The website Earth911.com provides list of recyclers by ZIP code, or by phone at 800-CLEAN-UP (800-253-2687).

Contra Costa Times

WALNUT CREEK, Calif.

The nation’s accelerating shift from incandescent bulbs to a new generation of energy-efficient lighting is raising an environmental concern — the release of tons of mercury every year.

The most popular new light — the curlicue, compact fluorescent light bulb, or CFL — accounts for a quarter of new bulb sales and each contains up to 5 milligrams of mercury, a potent neurotoxin that’s on the worst-offending list of environmental contaminants.

Demand for the bulbs is growing as government mandates for energy-efficient lighting take effect, yet only about 2 percent of residential consumers and one-third of businesses recycle them, according to the Association of Lighting and Mercury Recyclers.

“If the recycling rate remains as abysmally low as it is, then there will certainly be more mercury released into the environment,” said Paul Abernathy, executive director of the Napa-based recycling association. “Until the public really has some kind of convenient way to take them back, it’ll be an issue.”

As a result of discarded fluorescent lights, including CFLs, U.S. landfills release into the atmosphere and in stormwater runoff upward of 4 tons of mercury annually, according to a study in the Journal of the Air and Waste Management Association.

A San Francisco hardware-store owner sees the recycling dilemma firsthand.

“They’re promoting them and giving them away, but there’s nowhere to drop them off,” said Tom Tognetti, co-owner of Fredricksen’s Hardware.

The federal Clean Energy Act of 2007 established energy-efficiency standards for light bulbs that dimmed the future for incandescent lights, which don’t meet the new standards. By 2014, incandescent lights will be phased out in the U.S. California passed more stringent rules, clearing store shelves of the bulbs by 2013.

The familiar orbs are just too wasteful, converting to light only 10 percent of the energy they consume, with the rest squandered as heat.

Instead, sales of energy-efficient alternatives such as CFLs, halogen bulbs and LEDs have increased in recent years. The low-cost CFLs have been the most popular.

If every California household replaced five incandescent light bulbs with CFLs, it would save 6.18 billion kilowatt-hours and prevent the annual release of 2.26 million tons of the heat-trapping gas carbon dioxide, according to the California Energy Commission. That’s equivalent to taking 414,000 cars off the road.

But no federal law mandates recycling of household fluorescent lights. Federal rules exempt some businesses, Abernathy said, based in part on the number of light bulbs used. Several states, including California, Massachusetts, Maine, Vermont and Minnesota, do require fluorescent light recycling for all households and businesses, although Abernathy’s recycling association believes that compliance is low because of a lack of convenient drop-off options.

Tognetti’s store is part of a pilot project run by San Francisco to increase recycling of fluorescent lights and other hazardous waste. Since 2009, a city-financed truck has regularly stopped by his store to pick up toxic discards left by customers.

The principle behind the program is shared responsibility for managing toxic products at the end of their lives, said Debbie Raphael, a program manager with San Francisco’s Department of the Environment.