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| Lamp Recycling |
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| Handling Broken Compact Fluorescent Lamps |
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Fluorescent lamps contain small amounts of mercury vapor, which can be released into the air if the lamps are broken. While there is no adverse health effects from occasional exposure to broken lamps (NEMA), there are precautions you can take to properly handle broken fluorescent lamps and ensure further safety.
If a compact fluorescent lamp breaks in your home please do the following: (do not panic)
The ENERGY STAR program recommends the following:
http://www.energystar.gov/ia/partners/promotions/change_light/downloads/Fact_Sheet_Mercury.pdf
1. Because there is such a small amount of mercury in CFLs, your greatest risk if a bulb breaks is getting cut from glass shards.
2. Sweep up—don’t vacuum—all of the glass fragments and fine particles.
3. Place broken pieces in a sealed plastic bag and wipe the area with a damp paper towel to pick up any stray shards of glass or fine particles. Put the used towel in the plastic bag as well.
4. If weather permits, open windows to allow the room to ventilate.
The US EPA’s Mercury Spill Site http://www.epa.gov/mercury/spills/index.htmrecommends:
1. Open a window and leave the room for 15 minutes
2. Pick up all pieces you can without a vacuum cleaner and place in a sealable plastic bag.
3. Wash your hands
4. The first time you vacuum the area where the bulb was broken, remove the vacuum bag once done cleaning the area (or empty and wipe the canister) and put the bag and/or vacuum debris, as well as the cleaning materials, in two sealed plastic bags in the outdoor trash or protected outdoor location for normal disposal.
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| Linear Fluorscent Recycling |
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Keep mercury out of the environment
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Avoid potential liability issues
When trying to keep mercury in general out of the air, the two greatest opportunities with electric lamps are: to use energy-efficient lamps, (thereby driving down mercury emissions from coal fired power plants); and to avoid breaking the lamps prior to disposal by sending them to a recycling facility, where it is estimated that only 0.2% to 0.4% of the mercury is emitted to the atmosphere.
It is common knowledge that using energy-efficient lighting can help reduce utility costs and the related harm to the environement. But the benefits don't stop there. Energy-efficient light sources greatly reduce the amount of solid waste that enters the waste stream, since these lamps last longer than incandescent or halogen lamps and require fewer replacements. In addition, use of energy-efficient lamps reduces the need for power generation , thereby reducing emissions from power plants that burn fossil fuel to generate needed electricity.
Mercury is found in many rocks including coal. When coal is burned, mercury is released into the environment. Coal-burning power plants, which account for a little over 50% of US electricity generation, are the largest human-caused source of mercury emissions to the air in the United States, accounting for about 40 percent of all domestic mercury emissions.
However, energy-efficient lighting products such as fluorescent lamps, compact fluorescent lamps, and high intensity discharge (HID) lamps contain small amounts of mercury to sustain lamp life and maximize the amount of light produced per watt.
The primary benefit of lamp recycling is to keep fluorescent light bulbs from breaking and releasing this mercury into the environment.
Mercury does not get into the air directly from an operating lamp. It may bind with the glass or the phosphors or other coatings, but it stays in the lamp. Even when lamps are manufactured, mercury is contained by manufacturing processes or captured by filters. This leaves only one opportunity for direct mercury release from lamps into the air—breakage at the end of the lamp’s life.
This occurs when lamps are thrown into dumpsters or garbage trucks, typically prior to disposal. Because the amount of mercury content in an individual lamp is so low, breaking a small number of lamps does not present a health threat to workers. The improper disposal of large numbers of lamps, however, adds to the global reservoir of mercury. Burning hazardous wastes, or incineration of disposed materials can also release mercury into the environment.
Mercury in the air eventually settles into water or onto land where it can be washed into water. Once deposited, certain microorganisms can change it into methylmercury, a highly toxic form that builds up in fish, shellfish and animals that eat fish. Fish and shellfish are the main sources of methylmercury exposure to humans. Methylmercury builds up more in some types of fish and shellfish than others.The levels of methylmercury in fish and shellfish depend on what they eat, how long they live and how high they are in the food chain.
The US Environmental Protection Agency has classified mercury-containing lamps as Universal Waste, which simplifies disposal and eliminates additional paperwork, transport issues, and disposal charges associated with hazardous waste.
While EPA regulations encourage responsible disposal, they do allow for some exemptions—depending on the classification of user, type of lamp, and number of lamps to be disposed. This means that in parts of the U.S., lamps may be legally discarded in the conventional solid waste stream (trash), eventually finding their way to incinerators or landfills. Some states have adopted more stringent requirements, eliminating lamps from landfills.
SO PLEASE RECYCLE.
Mercury recovered from recycled lamps is sold back into the mercury market, and it can be reused in fluorescent lighting. OSRAM SYLVANIA uses recycled mercury in its fluorescent and HID lamps where possible.
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| RecyclePak Recycling kits |
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Superior Lighting provides an easy way to recycle all your lamps and ballasts -- for all brands of products. By separating items into their components and reusing the components and by-products, we are reducing waste and diverting waste from landfills, saving energy, and conserving our resources.
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| Recycling Statistics |
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According to NEMA, the National Electrical Manufacturers Association, lamp recycling has increased from less than 10 million lamps in 1990, to 70 million lamps in 1997, to 156 million lamps in 2003.
NEMA also estimates that lamp recycling in 2003 recovered approximately 5,720 pounds of mercury.
Businesses use 85+% of all mercury-containing lamps.
The national recycling rate in the commercial and industrial sectors is close to 30%, according to the Association of Lamp and Mercury Recyclers, while the national recycling rate is about 23%, and residential recycling is at less than 5%.
The following states have landfill bans for mercury-containing lamps:
For businesses and households:
Minnesota
Vermont
Parts of Florida
For businesses only:
Connecticut
Rhode Island
New York
Mercury emissions (NEMA):
The lighting industry uses approximately 9 tons of mercury in manufacturing energy-efficient lamps.
Coal-fired utilities emit 43 tons of mercury to generate power.
Lamp breakage releases up to 1 ton of mercury annually into the air.
Recycling lamps at the end-of-life releases less than one-tenth of a ton (<.1) of mercury into the air.
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| State Disposal Regulations |
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The EPA's website is intended to increase awareness, provide resource tools, information to users, and to encourage the recycling of all mercury-containing light bulbs, including compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs) after they burn out.
EPA is working with manufacturers and major U.S. retailers to develop, implement or expand recycling options. Household hazardous waste collection facilities usually accept these lamps. You can find more information about these collection and/or recycling programs at Where You Live or at Earth911.org.
Households and consumers can contact their state or local environmental regulatory agency for information about proper disposal options such as disposal in your household garbage if no other options are available. If your state or local environmental regulatory agency offers no other disposal options except your household garbage, place the fluorescent light bulb in two plastic bags and seal it before putting it into the outside trash, or other protected outside location, for the next normal trash collection.
· Basic Information- Learn the basics of recycling and otherwise disposing of mercury-containing light bulbs in compliance with federal and state rules.
· Where You Live - Find information about household hazardous waste collection and/or recycling programs.
· Frequent Questions - Find questions and answers about lamp disposal, proper handling, and other issues.
· Proper Management: Businesses and Households can discover how to store, transport and recycle or otherwise dispose of mercury-containing light bulbs.
· Regulatory Framework - Review a brief history of fluorescent lamp regulation and view regulatory documents.
· Outreach - Learn about EPA partnerships and activities to increase mercury-containing lamp recycling.
· Resources - View publications and links to Web sites that provide information on mercury-containing lamp recycling.
· Mercury Lamp Drum-Top Crusher Study - Learn about the results of EPA's 2006 study on the performance of mercury lamp drum-top crusher (DTC) devices.
· Treatment Standards for Mercury-Containing Debris- If you are a commercial handler of lamps, find out if EPA also considers your mercury-containing waste to be contaminated debris, which is subject to separate treatment standards.
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