I stand at least partially corrected. (Kalifornia requires hazmat, I bet!) From GE:
Please refer to our state disposal policies page. In most states, fluorescent and compact fluorescent light bulbs used at home can be disposed of in the same way as regular light bulbs. While all fluorescent bulbs contain a trace amount of mercury, the quantity is so minute that disposal is not regulated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) standards.
However, if you are disposing many fluorescent lamps you should know that because they contain mercury they are classified as hazardous waste unless:
1. You, as the end-user, generate less than 100kg of hazardous waste per month (approx. 360 4’ T12 lamps)
OR
2. The lamps pass the EPA Toxicity Characteristic Leaching Procedure (TCLP) Test.
If the lamps meet these criteria and your state’s regulation on TCLP is not stricter than the EPA’s regulation, the lamps can be disposed in the same way as normal waste. However, if the lamps do not meet the criteria to be classified as normal waste, they will need to be either recycled by a lamp recycler or disposed under the hazardous waste guidelines of your state.
GE Ecolux® lamps pass federal TCLP regulations and therefore, by federal standards, are not considered hazardous waste. However, you should check with your state regulations to determine if they are stricter than the federal regulations. Other non-Ecolux lamps are not consistently TCLP-compliant.
As far as the “flicker” thing goes, the old old school CFLs used the house current in a kind of stone-age hookup. Yes, 60Hz will make you sick. Later, they used twice house current: 120Hz can be irritating too, depending on what else is in the room (periodicity).
But the new ones have super-high frequencies that most human eyes simply cannot detect. There are some unlucky souls who have problems, but most of the world cannot tell. Incandescents are something like 20% efficient.
I have a bunch of CFLs all over the place: modern units from Philips, GE, etc. They produce a warm yellowish light at about 80-90% efficiency.
Sometimes incandescents are necessary (ovens, fridges, dimming chandeliers, X-mas lights, high-traffic on-off settings, etc.), but they are the exceptions.