Mercury in CFL Bulbs
The average CFL bulb manufactured today contains 4mg of mercury. It is an essential part of CFLs without which we would not have such energy-efficient light bulbs. Although it is anything but optimal to have such a toxic material used in the manufacture of a green product, this is no reason not to replace all incandescent bulbs with CFL bulbs at home and in the office.
Why? Because coal-fired power stations emit mercury - and during the average 5 year life of a CFL bulb the electricity generated to power it will have lead to smokestack emissions into the atmosphere of 2.4mg of mercury. Over the same 5 year period the electricity consumed by incandescent bulbs will result in 10mg of emissions. Therefore, even if you factor in the 4mg of mercury contained in the CFL bulb itself, the CFL is still a net winner.
My closest power plant does not burn coal, and there is a big nuke down the coast.
So when I throw my 4 mg of Hg in the trash, there is no “offset”, just Hg in the landfill.
So to be green the government would have to issue Gorebulbs only in an amount to compensate for the coal plants and no more, and at that, only to offset the ones that emit the most mercury.
Plus, with a Gorebulb, you are throwing away the little ballast, too. “Old fashioned” fluorescent tech had you keep the ballast and use it for more than one lamp, unlike Gorebulbs.
Take one apart and you’ll find a wee circuit card with an inductor or two, some transistors, and some capacitors, all chucked in the dustbin.