Earth Equity News

Recycling Options Lag CFL Push. By Mark Levy, AP, May 18, 2008. "For now, much of the nation has no real recycling network for CFLs, despite the ubiquitous PR campaigns, rebates and giveaways encouraging people to adopt the swirly darlings of the energy-conscious movement. Recyclers and others guess that only a small fraction of CFLs sold in the United States are recycled, while the rest are put out with household trash or otherwise discarded... Sales of the bulbs have skyrocketed this decade -- doubling last year to about 380 million after registering just 17,000 in 2000, according to EPA... Compact fluorescent bulbs each contain roughly 5 milligrams of mercury, which health professionals say is tiny in relation to the amount in a glass thermometer. Using that estimate, almost 2 tons of mercury were in the 380 million sold last year. By comparison, about 50 tons of mercury are spewed into the air each year by the nation's coal-fired power plants."