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Before Clean-up: Air Out the Room

    * Have people and pets leave the room, and don't let anyone walk through the breakage area on their way out.
    * Open a window and leave the room for 15 minutes or more.
    * Shut off the central forced-air heating/air conditioning system, if you have one.

Clean-Up Steps for Hard Surfaces

    * Carefully scoop up glass pieces and powder using stiff paper or cardboard and place them in a glass jar with metal lid (such as a canning jar) or in a sealed plastic bag.
    * Use sticky tape, such as duct tape, to pick up any remaining small glass fragments and powder.
    * Wipe the area clean with damp paper towels or disposable wet wipes. Place towels in the glass jar or plastic bag.
    * Do not use a vacuum or broom to clean up the broken bulb on hard surfaces.

Clean-up Steps for Carpeting or Rug

    * Carefully pick up glass fragments and place them in a glass jar with metal lid (such as a canning jar) or in a sealed plastic bag.
    * Use sticky tape, such as duct tape, to pick up any remaining small glass fragments and powder.
    * If vacuuming is needed after all visible materials are removed, vacuum the area where the bulb was broken.
    * Remove the vacuum bag (or empty and wipe the canister), and put the bag or vacuum debris in a sealed plastic bag.

Clean-up Steps for Clothing, Bedding and Other Soft Materials

    * If clothing or bedding materials come in direct contact with broken glass or mercury-containing powder from inside the bulb that may stick to the fabric, the clothing or bedding should be thrown away. Do not wash such clothing or bedding because mercury fragments in the clothing may contaminate the machine and/or pollute sewage.
    * You can, however, wash clothing or other materials that have been exposed to the mercury vapor from a broken CFL, such as the clothing you are wearing when you cleaned up the broken CFL, as long as that clothing has not come into direct contact with the materials from the broken bulb.
    * If shoes come into direct contact with broken glass or mercury-containing powder from the bulb, wipe them off with damp paper towels or disposable wet wipes. Place the towels or wipes in a glass jar or plastic bag for disposal.

Disposal of Clean-up Materials

    * Immediately place all clean-up materials outdoors in a trash container or protected area for the next normal trash pickup.
    * Wash your hands after disposing of the jars or plastic bags containing clean-up materials.
    * Check with your local or state government about disposal requirements in your specific area. Some states do not allow such trash disposal. Instead, they require that broken and unbroken mercury-containing bulbs be taken to a local recycling center.

Future Cleaning of Carpeting or Rug: Air Out the Room During and After Vacuuming

    * The next several times you vacuum, shut off the central forced-air heating/air conditioning system and open a window before vacuuming.
    * Keep the central heating/air conditioning system shut off and the window open for at least 15 minutes after vacuuming is completed.

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Households and consumers can use the links below to find out where to take their used fluorescent light bulbs, including compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs). Businesses can learn about how to properly recycle/dispose of used mercury-containing light bulbs by visiting Universal Waste Handlers - Steps to Managing Your Universal Waste Lamps in an Environmentally-Safe Manner.

Use the links below to find out about household hazardous waste collection programs in your area. Households and consumers can often recycle/dispose of their mercury-containing bulbs by taking them to their local household hazardous waste collection program. Household hazardous waste collection programs are usually organized by counties or local solid waste authorities. These programs will vary by location. Contact your local solid waste authority for more details, or use the links below.

    * In general, household hazardous waste collection programs accept waste only from residents, although some programs include small businesses as well.
    * The service is usually free, though some may charge a small fee.
    * Some household hazardous waste collection programs only collect these items once or twice a year, so residents will have to hold on to their light bulbs until the collection takes place. Other collection programs provide collection services throughout the year.
    * In addition to mercury-containing light bulbs, these programs may also collect paints, pesticides, cleaning supplies or batteries.

Choose your region or state from the map below to find where to take your mercury-containing light bulbs (i.e. fluorescent light bulbs and compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs)).

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CFLs Are A Hazardous Product & Do Not Save Energy

It may surprise many people to know that CFLs increase a consumer’s carbon footprint in a ‘cradle to grave’ analysis. Full costs to manufacture, operate and safely dispose of a CFL have never been disclosed to the public. The reality is that residential lighting takes up only 0.8% of energy consumption in Canada.

CFLs are energy hogs to produce, operate and dispose of. Reducing a consumer’s carbon footprint is the CFL’s raison d’être.  But before deciding to switch over to compact florescent lights it would be wise to first review a cradle to grave analysis of the carbon footprint of a CFL, compared to an incandescent bulb.

    What is the real energy cost of a CFL?  What does it cost to mine, manufacture, package, ship, sell, operate, dispose of CFLs on the environment? These are questions ignored by CFL promoters.

An International Association for Energy-Efficient Lighting (IAEEL) study conducted in Denmark, explored some carbon footprint factors, but not all, showing it took 1.8 Kwh of electricity to assemble a CFL compared to 0.11 Kwh to assemble an incandescent bulb.  That means it took 16 times more energy to produce a CFL. The study did not include the fact that a CFL is much heavier and is more dangerous to handle, and will thus cost more to package, to ship, and to sell.

This research also did not calculate the energy required to safely dispose of a CFL and reclaim the mercury. The cost of removing mercury from the landfills was also not considered. More over, the potential cost in destroyed lives, illnesses, and lost human productivity due to exposure to mercury and electromagnetic radiation have not been considered.

If such a study could be done, and considered all the negative contributing factors, it would show a CFL has a massive carbon footprint, one that would dwarf a regular incandescent light bulb and it would also show that CFLs will leave behind a wake of environmental destruction.

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it took 1.8 Kwh of electricity to assemble a CFL compared to 0.11 Kwh to assemble an incandescent bulb.

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15 x 90 watt Incandescent:
1000 hours x 90 watts x 15 lamps = 1350 kWh

1 x 18 watt long life CFL
15.000 hours x 18 watt = 270 kWh

Saved by CFL during service life: 1080 kWh

production cost of 15 Incandescent bulbs: 1.65 kWh
Production cost of 1 CFL = 1.8 kWh

Saved by CFL during service life minus minus manufacture energy cost: 1078.5 kWh


1078.5 kWh = 3882.6 MJ (megajoule)

= 161.8 kg coal
= 101.8 ltr oil (0.64 barrel of oil equivalent)


101.8 liter of oil releases 1.02-12.21kg SO2 (among other pollutants)
161.8 kg coal releases 3.24-89 mg Mercury (among many pollutants)

My CFL contains 3mg mercury.


Sooo...

Theres seriously much more mrcury in a fresh "silver" tooth filling than in a good quality CFL.

I agree mercury is one of the worst offenders where it comes to pollutants, but a 90W replacing CFL saves as much weight in coal as the family it lights

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What is the energy cost to reclaim the mercury?

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I wasn't going to go quite as far as them about the energy thing

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I love geeking out on such science details and putting the results in my arse
nal of factoids. Its a hobby, I wanted to know

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it is imprtant to note that the production cost in terms of energy are quite a bit higher than for incandescent.

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I have a lot of dimmers.  I find that even if you keep them on the highest setting all the time they still burn out faster than inkys.

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Even in non-dimmed fixtures.  Not even close.  I'm sorry they are vastly impractical health hazards that don't come close to offering the energy savings touted.

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Wiccan_Seeker said:


Dimmers and CFL dont mix, I agree. But why not use a smaller wattage bulb rather than a dimmer?  Dimmers themselves use electricity too.

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Even in non-dimmed fixtures.  Not even close.  I'm sorry they are vastly impractical health hazards that don't come close to offering the energy savings touted.

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Most brands, usually the cheap ones, do not deliver what they promise I agree and laws should be stricter as to their claims (such as how many lumen corresponds to how many watts of incandescent, and the service life) but if you get a good brand you can expect them to live out their service life.

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And how are we supposed to know which ones don't suck?

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