Tuesday, March 04, 2008

That Newfangled Light Bulb
Now, the question is how to dispose of these compact fluorescent bulbs once they break or quit working.

Unlike traditional light bulbs, each of these spiral bulbs has a tiny bit of a dangerous toxin — around five milligrams of mercury. And although one dot of mercury might not seem so bad, almost 300 million compact fluorescents were sold in the United States last year. That is already a lot of mercury to throw in the trash, and the amounts will grow ever larger in coming years.

3 comments:

margo1915 said...

well when the day comes when these bulbs are mandatory I plan to stock up on hundreds of incandescents! I can't stand these newfangled bulbs - hate the light they throw, they are slow to come on and I had one explode on me (and didn't know there was mercury in it)

So there...

Anonymous said...

I know that you can bring the bad bulbs to the Waterman Whole Foods for recycling.

margo1915 said...

that's good to know Max - I'll keep that in mind