Posted on 11/27/2007 11:46:03 AM PST by Redcloak
The state agency is working in collaboration with the U.S. EPA under the National Partnership for Environmental Priorities program, NPEP.
Cal/EPA, the first state agency to join the partnership program, would like to help lead the nation in continued efforts to remove mercury from the environment.
The state aims to divert approximately 4.5 million compact fluorescent light bulbs from landfills in one year.
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Celebrated for their efficiency, CFLs have one drawback - mercury. (Photo credit unknown) |
"Reducing the impact of mercury on human health and the ecosystem is a priority for the EPA," said Wayne Nastri, administrator for the EPA’s Pacific Southwest region. "We are very pleased to have our state partner Cal/EPA join this program and set an innovative example for other states throughout the country."
"The problem with the bulbs is that they'll break before they get to the landfill," says John Skinner, executive director of the Solid Waste Association of North America, the trade group for the people who handle trash and recycling.
"They'll break in containers, or they'll break in a dumpster or they'll break in the trucks," Skinner told NPR. "Workers may be exposed to very high levels of mercury when that happens."
Because mercury is so persistent in the environment, and so toxic at such minute quantities, the EPA launched the NPEP Mercury Challenge in 2004 to focus on the elimination of mercury.
"We already are working hard to reduce mercury through our Take-It-Back program, and by combining those efforts with NPEP, we hope to achieve even greater reductions," said California Secretary for Environmental Protection Linda Adams.
Cal/EPA has committed to reducing mercury through its own California Take-It-Back Partnership, a collaboration of government, private business, and non-profit organizations that provides free, local and convenient ways for California residents to recycle everyday household wastes such as batteries, fluorescent lamps and cell phones.
Since the beginning of 2007, about nine million fluorescent bulbs have been purchased in California, preventing the release of 1.5 billion pounds of carbon dioxide compared to traditional incandescent bulbs.
While these bulbs are extremely energy efficient, they each contain trace amounts of mercury. The partnership helps keep mercury, a neurotoxin that can cause kidney and brain damage, out of the environment.
When the time comes to replace a compact fluorescent bulb, seal the old bulb in a plastic bag and take it to the nearest Household Hazardous Waste Disposal Site - see Earth 911 to find the site nearest you.
NPEP, a voluntary federal program, aims to reduce the use or release of four million pounds of toxic chemicals in the United States by 2011.
I’ll do my part by not buying them in the first place.
We tried them once. They burned out as quickly as incandescents did. So much for them being cheaper to use.
As I wrote before they started pushing this enviro wackjob hug a puppy nonsense, it will cost more energy to dispose of the damn things than it saves in its lifetime.
No different than replacing paper with plastic.
How is that “saving the planet?”
Mercury is already in the environment, seeing as that's where it came from. It's not like they're going to prevent fire in manzanita stands sitting on cinnabar formations!
Most of the people of this state are total idiots.
--for the "you can't make this stuff up" file--
Wasn’t the PRC (Peoples Republic of California) mandating the use of those things? And doesn’t the local HazMat team have to come to your home in case you break one to clean it up at a cost of $2,300 to the homeowner??
Great, now we’ll have a ‘Light-bulb’ Bill like the bottle bills - since lightbulbs technically are used more than soda cans, let’s just put a $5 deposit on it/sarc
And so all the goon-bird enviro nazis have created yet another mess. In some cases, like California, they sought to outlaw incandecent lights in favor of flourescent lights. Now they have created a potentially bigger environmental issue because they are too dense to understand that good intentions feelings are not enough.
These are the same clowns that want to impose Kyoto and global warming “cures” on us.
As for me? I’ll wait until the LEDs come out.
I use florescents by the front door as the filiment bulbs would shake and break whenever one of the kids would slam the door! However - what do they do with these bulbs if they don’t go to the landfill? Send them off to China to be “recycled” by barefoot 10-year olds reclaiming the mercury? (Like they do with computers).
Hardihar, you gotta love the libs. One great idea after another. I will never buy those bulbs anyway — they are UGLY. And that someone thinks I should buy them because it is the moral high ground/ that alone clinches the deal. Glad to hear they are causing trouble.
Yeah, as we will soon come to learn, the actual “recycling” will simply be a longer, more costly route to the same landfill.
“Strange. We’ve had two compact florescent bulbs in our kitchen for two years.
We replaced our old bulbs as they burned out and have yet to have to replace any of the florescent bulbs.”
We use one in our Parrot’s room where the light is on 12 hours a day. We replaced the CFL only once in the 5 years we have been using them in that room. I don’t care for the color spectrum, I find the light too yellow, but in a room where we leave the light on, the cost savings is the deciding factor.
Well, unfortunately, your state is not the only one.
My favorite anecdote concerning "banner chasers" is about the scientist that "discovered" carcinogens. He's a real scientist, and had his grad students check out the carcinogen factor of charcoaled grilled cheeseburgers using various cheeses. Yada, yada, yada, the Velveeta-ladened burgers had the most of what turned out to be, anti-carcinogens.
The scientist was delighted at finding an anti-carcinogen effect, but the grad students were really bummed at not being able to rip on a processed food of corporate America.
And the money you save on energy, you’ll now be spending on a government program to recycle it. The lefties never cease to amaze. Whenever they try to solve one problem, they create ten others.
California - The geniuses who required additives (MTBE)to gasoline to 'prevent pollution' which then turned out to be toxic in the soil and groundwater.
California - Where no problem is so trivial that a more treacherous and dangerous solution cannot be created.
“they have only one drawback...”
no they don’t... unless you get the “daylight” type, the light they give off is a horrible color...
When we bought our house almost two years ago I replaced about 40 incandescents with CFLs. To date not one has burned out and our electric bill is considerably lower than it would be with incandescents. I bought most of my bulbs at Home Depot while they were on sale. I estimate they have already paid for themselves by now.
Thanks for the idea! I have had this problem for years now.
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