The below was posted via So tell us once again how super-green those new lights are … – The Santa Fe New Mexican. It is a good thing that NLR is a direct end recycler for many of the outlets accepting CFLs for recycling. Also back in 2008 NLR introduced the nation’s first “point of purchase” recycling display the ComPak CFL Recycling Center. It allows for the recycling of up to 180 CFLs and can be placed virtually anywhere. Read more about ComPak

It was a great example of well-intentioned lawmaking: As part of the 2007 Clean Energy Act, Congress and President George W. Bush enacted laws phasing out incandescent light bulbs — the kind that for years, in cartoons, have been going on over people’s heads — in favor of those spiral-tube compact fluorescent lights that have become a symbol of environmentalist do-goodism.

And it is doing good — we think, or at least we’re told:

They can last as long as 15,000 hours — 15 times as long as the bulb Thomas Edison perfected to serve the world for more than a century. And, the propaganda continues, if every American household switched only one incandescent for fluorescent, we’d be accomplishing the energy savings of closing down two coal-fired electric-generating plants — at the same time reducing as much greenhouse gas as we would if we took 1.5 million cars off the road.

There may be truth to the energy- and carbon-saving claims. But as to the compact fluorescents’ life spans, many householders have seen incandescent bulbs, screwed in long before the fluorescents, still burning long after the vaunted long-lifers had conked.

Still, if those squiggly looking lights contribute to reduced energy demand, who can argue with Congress’ decree? And don’t all of us have a duty to protect the environment?

But whoops: Our senators and representatives, in their rush to look nice and green, overlooked something: In each of those fluorescent bulbs there’s about 5 milligrams of mercury. And as even rookie enviros know, that element is one of the worst contaminants.

And what do Americans do when a bulb burns out? We chuck it. So here are our landfills, emitting maybe four tons of the stuff into the air and water. Seems Congress, in a head-over-heels rush to get those energy-efficient, if slow-to-light-up, bulbs in our lamps, didn’t apply equal alacrity to provisions for recycling. And this isn’t just feel-good recycling that’s needed; it’s crucial.

Some states have taken up the slack, requiring recycling of compact fluorescents. Can they really enforce such requirements? Lotsa luck.

To their credit, some stores have stepped into the breach: Home Depot set up a free recycling system about the same time the clean-energy law took effect; Lowe’s and some Ace Hardware stores, among others, are doing the same. Chances are, the main chains will become drop-off points for the bulbs.

Fluorescent-bulb manufacturers are hard at work reducing mercury content. But in the meantime, light-emitting diodes are making a charge into the home-lighting market; they use less electricity and don’t contain mercury.

So what we’re seeing is an alternative-lighting industry in its infancy; give our entrepreneurs a little time, and a little competition, and they’ll get rid of the rough edges.

Which raises a political irony: Some congressional right-wingers are ranting against the 2014 deadline for light-bulb conversions, insisting that their fellow Americans have a right to keep on wasting electricity with their incandescents. They should have greater faith in the private enterprise they promote.

Our country is long overdue for ending its energy-wasteful ways — and we’ll come to grips with the changes represented by the new light bulbs. Congress could have done more to avoid the potentially dangerous recycling flub — but that, too, is in the process of improvement. Soon, the incandescent bulb will join the buggy whip in museums — and maybe the fluorescent bulb won’t be far behind …

via So tell us once again how super-green those new lights are … – The Santa Fe New Mexican.