How will we handle the disposal of excessive amounts of toxic mercury if we change all lighting to flourscent?

This is really not a big deal. You just have to collect the mercury in the light bulbs using a dedicated facility.

I would be more worried about the mercury that is released due to coal power plants or any other plant burning coal.

And I do not even speak about the wild golddigging in some places (e.G South America and Siberia) where mercury is released in large quantities to bind the gold ores.

And what about the extraction of uranium where we seek for U-235 and leave Uranium 238 ? (99%)

A typical compact fluorescent (CF) bulb has up to 5mg of mercury (this is an industry-accepted cap, but some bulbs have much lower levels). This amount is much smaller than the amount that would be generated by a coal power plant (which most of the world uses) if you did NOT use a CF bulb.

Therefore, using a CF will actually reduce the mercury and eliminate mercury waste.

With regards to individual landfills, you can return a used CF bulb to many of the places of purchase, and if not to the manufacturer. They use a disposal method that captures the mercury for proper disposal.

There is not much mercury in a compact fluorescent bulb. Certainly not as much as in the regular 4 foot long tube fluorescent lights that have been in commercial buildings for 100 years. And lots of electricity is generated by burning coal. Coal has small mounts of mercury in it. So the mercury used in the bulbs has to be balanced against the extra mercury emitted by coal fired power plants to generate the extra electricity to power the less efficient bulbs. Also, mercury in discarded light bulbs could be recycled, while scrubbing mercury from coal smoke is not easy.

Whilst the amount of mercury used in production a CFL bulb is at most 6mg, the average mercury content is 4mg. The total emissions of mercury created by a CFL bulb from electricity consumption over its lifetime is about 2.4mg of mercury. In comparison the emissions from an incandescent light bulb through electricity consumption is about 10mg. Therefore overall CFLs result in a slightly less amount of mercury emitted over the lifetime of a CFL bulb.

Mercury is not as dangerous as the substance it creates, methylmercury, a highly toxic compound of mercury. This is created from mercury interacting with bacteria in the environment, after it has been incorrectly disposed, or fallen back to earth from fossil fuel power plants. Thus CFLs will reduce this highly dangerous substance in the enviornment.

Recycled CFL bulbs are crushed in a machine that uses negative pressure ventilation and a mercury absorbing filter allowing the mercury to be reclaimed. So the mercury in CFLs can be recycled.

CFLs also offer a reduction of 38kg of Co2 per CFL per year and an overall saving of 14% on your electricity bill.

Note: It is assumed the emissions from electricity consumption is from standard coal fired power station electricity supply. Should renewables be used then the emissions of mercury would be 0mg (not including the production of the renewable source), however for the use of incandescent bulbs to be effective we would need to be using a high proportion of renewable energy, which we do not.

PS ... you can now get CFLs with ultra-low mercury levels.

For a detailed look at mercury in CFLs;

http://howtosaveenergy.blogspot.com/2007/05/cfl-me...

Energy Saver

http://howtosaveenergy.blogspot.com/

We need to recycle them. Bear in mind that regular incandescent bulbs also pump mercury into the environment: in the form of waste from coal-fired power plants. At least with CFL's the mercury is containable.

they might desire to be taken to a suitable disposal facility. This brings up a solid think approximately regards to the frenzy to apply those bulbs under the stress of regulation interior the State of California. Makes you ask your self why the region with the main earthquakes in country might insist on utilising bulbs which will reason a considerable cleanup difficulty if a team of them wreck at as quickly as.

That's why it's important for everyone to participate in your local compact fluorescent recycling programs. Cadmium is a similar situation - it's used in manufacturing solar panels and in rechargeable batteries. Basically, if you follow William McDonough's philosophy in the book, Cradle to Cradle, you can see that there are two kinds of nutrients to the earth - biological and technological. Biological nutrients are anything that can biodegrade back to to the soil and produce nutrients for living organisms. TECHNOLOGICAL nutrients, which Mr. McDonough classifies both mercury and cadmium, can be recycled infinitely back into productive technological components such as more solar panels, more rechargeable batteries, or computers, etc. As long as we are not disposing of these things into our environment via a landfill, and we reuse them continuously, they have their useful place. The current benefit from solar Photovoltaic panels and rechargeable batteries far outweighs the disadvantages if these simple guidelines are followed.

Check out the book, Cradle to Cradle - it's wonderful. And if Mr. McDonough ever comes to your town to speak, don't miss the chance to hear his ideas! Thanks.

The Global Warming Fanatics are all insane and like a half ****** gun can go off hurting or killing people at any given momment..

They along with the Politically Correct Traitors are going to kill us all.

You know as well as I that when people get rid of their new and not improved light bulbs they are going to throw them in the garbage just like they always have.

And it will give the next generation of Fanatics something new to alarm us about.

Global Mercury Poisening.

Fluorescent bulbs last longer than regular bulbs, so there won't be as many burning out. Keeping it simple, don't throw them away. Double seal in zip-lock bags and put them in your attic, garage, or hollow wall. Disposed of, but not broken.