CFL = Compact Fluorescent Light Bulbs contain Mercury...If they Break?
Handle as Hazardous Waste...
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Whatever you do, don't vacuum a broken bulb,
advises Pamela Schnepper, a toxicologist in the environmental health program at the Department of Environmental Services.
"That will spread it through the house, it will put it in the air, and then the vacuum cleaner will be contaminated.
"Instead, environmental experts advise, ventilate the room and leave it for 15 minutes.
The safest approach is to wear gloves, and use cardboard and duct tape to pick up small pieces and powder, seal everything in a screw-top jar, and store the jar in a safe place until you can dispose of it at a hazardous waste collection.
Where to Recycle?
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1 - Home Depot
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2 - IKEA
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3 - Search on-line: www.epa.gov/bulbrecycling
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4 - Search on-line: http://www.earth911.com/
"Making Every Day Earth Day"
(Find a Recycling or Re-Use Location on their webpage)
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5 - Search on-line: Local Hazardous Household Waste Programs
(TCEQ = Texas Commission on Environmental Quality for Contacts
ie: Harris County
Webpage Link: www.tceq.state.tx.us/assistance/hhw/contacts.html#harris)
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Article (READ MORE) - "All Things Considered" on NPR Radio
Excerpts from February 15, 2007 ·
The Environmental Protection Agency and some large business, including Wal-Mart, are aggressively promoting the sale of compact fluorescent light bulbs as a way to save energy and fight global warming. They want Americans to buy many millions of them over the coming years.
But the bulbs contain small amounts of mercury, a neurotoxin, and the companies and federal government haven't come up with effective ways to get Americans to recycle them...
Experts agree that it's not easy for most people to recycle these bulbs. Even cities that have curbside recycling won't take the bulbs. So people have to take them to a hazardous-waste collection day or a special facility...
"The only retailer that I know of that is recycling is IKEA," she says, referring to the Swedish-owned furniture chain store.
Webpage Link to this Article: www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=7431198
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