Home Depot no longer recycling CFL bulbs

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Originally Posted By: hatt
I see you were not able to address the cycle comments. I'm am glad you're on the anti fluoride train.


Others have already addressed this.

And frankly i couldnt care less how it was in the ecosystem, or if it was bioavailable to creatures of the day. It shoukd be quite obvious that keeping excess mercury out of the locally available ecosystem is prudent.

Again, LED solves it on all accounts, but CFL doesnt deserve the knee jerk hatred either.
 
Originally Posted By: fdcg27
Please tell us in what geologic era free mercury vapor was floating around in the air.
Your cycle theory tells us that this must have been the case at some point.


Please explain how the mercury got into the coal?
 
Originally Posted By: JHZR2
Originally Posted By: hatt
I see you were not able to address the cycle comments. I'm am glad you're on the anti fluoride train.


Others have already addressed this.

And frankly i couldnt care less how it was in the ecosystem, or if it was bioavailable to creatures of the day. It shoukd be quite obvious that keeping excess mercury out of the locally available ecosystem is prudent.

Again, LED solves it on all accounts, but CFL doesnt deserve the knee jerk hatred either.
Since CFL was shoved down out throats by law it's up for scrutiny. Looks pretty clear that the panicked CFL push was the knee jerk reaction since LEDs have already obsoleted them.
 
CFLs were considered a temporary measure until LED technology matured. I'm not sure but there may be technology beyond LEDs.
 
The amount of mercury in a CFL is minuscule. Probably more in your tooth fillings. Certainly no worse than the millions of older florescent tubes that have been used for decades.

Quote:
2. CFL bulbs are dangerous because of their mercury content. A number of readers were alarmed that CFL bulbs contained hazardous mercury, and were worried about being exposed to it if the bulbs broke. “I have six kids,” one commenter noted. “I can’t take the chance of having these hazards in my house!” But research indicates that while CFL bulbs do require more careful handling and disposal, the hazard may be blown out of proportion. According to a 2008 article on the issue in the scientific journal Environmental Health Perspectives, CFLs typically contain from three to five milligrams of mercury—about one hundredth of the mercury content of the older thermostats that may still be found in some homes. Researchers have found that only a tiny fraction of that is actually released when bulbs break. For example, in a study published in 2011 in the journal Environmental Engineering Science, Jackson State University researchers Yadong Li and Li Jin reported that even if left unattended for 24 hours, a broken bulb will release from 0.04 to 0.7 milligrams of mercury. The researchers found that it would take weeks for the amount of mercury vapor in the room to reach levels that would be hazardous to a child. That can be avoided by quickly following the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s simple procedure for safe cleanup. Additionally, Horowitz suggests: “When your CFL stops working put it in a Ziploc bag and take it to Home Depot or Lowe’s, who will recycle it for you for free.” Another way to look at the mercury content of CFLs: reducing electricity consumption by using more efficient lights might help reduce the amount of mercury emitted into the atmosphere by coal-burning power plants, the biggest single source of mercury pollution in the air. (See related story: “Pro-Environment Light Bulb Labeling Turns Off Conservative Buyers, Study Finds.”)
 
Originally Posted By: Kestas
CFLs were considered a temporary measure until LED technology matured. I'm not sure but there may be technology beyond LEDs.
I do not recall this. Do you have the text handy showing CFLs were pushed as a temporary measure?
 
New bulbs were pushed for profits. Get laws passed that mandate your new products. Products not refined enough and priced too high to survive on their own. LEDs would have naturally gained market as the quality improved and became cheaper. The crony corporations wouldn't have had the windfall in that scenario however. We do this over and over. Push products with tax $$$ that aren't ready for prime time, and maybe never ready.

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/indust...article/2541430
 
Originally Posted By: hatt
Originally Posted By: Kestas
CFLs were considered a temporary measure until LED technology matured. I'm not sure but there may be technology beyond LEDs.
I do not recall this. Do you have the text handy showing CFLs were pushed as a temporary measure?

I remember this from a talk given at the Univ of Michigan from a professor who is studying lighting and an expert on this subject.
 
Originally Posted By: Kestas
Originally Posted By: hatt
Originally Posted By: Kestas
CFLs were considered a temporary measure until LED technology matured. I'm not sure but there may be technology beyond LEDs.
I do not recall this. Do you have the text handy showing CFLs were pushed as a temporary measure?

I remember this from a talk given at the Univ of Michigan from a professor who is studying lighting and an expert on this subject.


That talk wasn't presented to the general public. Of course industry insiders and experts were aware CFLs were a short term solution.
 
Originally Posted By: hatt
Originally Posted By: fdcg27
Please tell us in what geologic era free mercury vapor was floating around in the air.
Your cycle theory tells us that this must have been the case at some point.


Please explain how the mercury got into the coal?


Don't know.
You're the one propounding a cycle theory for this element, though, so the explanations are yours to provide.
 
Originally Posted By: fdcg27
Originally Posted By: hatt
Originally Posted By: fdcg27
Please tell us in what geologic era free mercury vapor was floating around in the air.
Your cycle theory tells us that this must have been the case at some point.


Please explain how the mercury got into the coal?


Don't know.
You're the one propounding a cycle theory for this element, though, so the explanations are yours to provide.

https://www.nps.gov/neri/learn/nature/geologicformations.htm
Quote:
As it formed the gorge, the river sliced into and through thick coal-bearing rocks, exposing them. This made the coal relatively easy to remove and led to the industrialization of the New River Gorge. Some of the coal found in the New River Gorge is considered globally significant because of its exceptional quality and purity.


https://www.nps.gov/neri/learn/nature/geologicformations.htm

Mercury formed. Then mercury somehow made it into coal seam. River cut through coal seam. Mercury now somewhere else. Mercury could end up in another coal seam or anywhere else. Clearly a cycle. Any other questions?
 
Last edited:
Originally Posted By: hatt
New bulbs were pushed for profits. Get laws passed that mandate your new products. Products not refined enough and priced too high to survive on their own. LEDs would have naturally gained market as the quality improved and became cheaper. The crony corporations wouldn't have had the windfall in that scenario however. We do this over and over. Push products with tax $$$ that aren't ready for prime time, and maybe never ready.

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/indust...article/2541430


Quite some claims there...

Actually, given the state of electrical infrastructure, the capital cost of upgrading, etc., moving to low consumption lighting can help substantially reduce overloading at some substations.

Utilities could be said to be as much of an advocate as GE and Sylvania, given the seemingly unsubstantiated claims in that article. In many places, the utilities, not OEMs, offered subsidies to ensure adoption. Methinks the utilities have a bigger lobby than the lightbulb manufacturers...
 
I don't understand power companies telling me how to reduce usage... that would be like Exxon-Mobil telling me how to burn less gas, so they reduce their income.

IRONY: Politicians pushed fluorescent bulbs because they are supposedly better for the environment, and yet they have mercury which requires extra recycling trucks & gasoline to collect them. I suspect a Well-to-Junkyard analysis would reveal the old Thomas Edison bulbs (incandescent) actually use LESS energy to manufacture, less to dispose, and therefore cause less damage than the CFLs do.

A similar study for hybrids vs. normal cars found the hybrids are barely any cleaner, due to battery manufacture cost & eventual disposal damage to the environment.
 
Originally Posted By: veryHeavy
I don't understand power companies telling me how to reduce usage... that would be like Exxon-Mobil telling me how to burn less gas, so they reduce their income.

IRONY: Politicians pushed fluorescent bulbs because they are supposedly better for the environment, and yet they have mercury which requires extra recycling trucks & gasoline to collect them. I suspect a Well-to-Junkyard analysis would reveal the old Thomas Edison bulbs (incandescent) actually use LESS energy to manufacture, less to dispose, and therefore cause less damage than the CFLs do.

A similar study for hybrids vs. normal cars found the hybrids are barely any cleaner, due to battery manufacture cost & eventual disposal damage to the environment.

They tell you to conserve energy. Then after you conserve, they have to up your rates because you don't use enough. Been done with water forever.

You can't factor in any external factors because if you do it screws up the narrative. If one bulb uses 10 watts and another uses 100 watts that's the end of the story.
 
Nice failure to provide an answer.
Mercury doesn't "form", at least not by the action of a river eroding soft rock.
It's an element. Try looking at something called the Periodic Table.
You could Google it.
Mercury along with every other element beyond hydrogen and lithium was formed in the fusion reactor that is a star and to get to an element as heavy as mercury the stars that did so would have had to be a very massive ones.
My post was a test for you and you failed it, so I'll give you a little tutoring.
Mercury, like all of the heavier elements would have settled toward the center of our world when it was still a molten ball.
Volcanism would have brought at least some mercury closer to the surface as it did with even heavier elements like uranium. Volcanism would have also spewed some mercury vapor into the atmosphere long before there were any macrofauna to be injured by it. There were plants, though, and the plants that ultimately became coal seams absorbed some of this atmospheric mercury, so mercury is found in coal.
Coal is a hydrocarbon, so it required living things (plants) that could use solar energy or consume plants that did to form.
 
Originally Posted By: veryHeavy
I don't understand power companies telling me how to reduce usage... that would be like Exxon-Mobil telling me how to burn less gas, so they reduce their income.

IRONY: Politicians pushed fluorescent bulbs because they are supposedly better for the environment, and yet they have mercury which requires extra recycling trucks & gasoline to collect them. I suspect a Well-to-Junkyard analysis would reveal the old Thomas Edison bulbs (incandescent) actually use LESS energy to manufacture, less to dispose, and therefore cause less damage than the CFLs do.

A similar study for hybrids vs. normal cars found the hybrids are barely any cleaner, due to battery manufacture cost & eventual disposal damage to the environment.



The cost to install substations is an investment that they may be able to pass along to the buyers of energy, but possibly not fast enough, etc.

Some places there isnt real estate to install more capacity. People also dont want power distribution in their backyard.

Conservation via lighting efficiency is one of the easiest ways. Any house filled with people could easily have 10 or so 100W lighbulbs. Go to CFL or LED and that energy use is cut down 80+%.

So instead of a 1kW lighting load, its a 200W lighting load. Times millions of homes is megawatts of power.
 
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