Why Recycle?
1. Legal Requirements
Many states require light and lamp recycling and the proper disposal of ballasts, batteries, and electronic waste by law. Review the following ling to make sure you are compliant with your state regulations. For official guidance and other tools and resources regarding lamp regulations and recycling, please visit the federal EPA fluorescent lamp website.
EPA regulations on lamps require most non-residential facilities to properly dispose of their lamps. Most landfills do not accept light, battery and other types of mercury containing devices and are increasingly intolerant of lamps from non-residential sources due to the amount of mercury found in each lamp. Bulbs found in landfills are subject to retroactive clean-up costs under CERCLA. Recycling of the lamp components is the recommended method of disposal by the Environmental Protection Agency and helps to minimize corporate liability.
Why Recycle Fluorescent Bulbs? Recycling light bulbs ensures that you are in compliance with all state and federal regulations. Certificates of recycling are sent via email for each container returned.
2. Environment Benefits
Fluorescent lamps contain mercury, and ballasts, batteries, and electronic waste can contain mercury, lead, metals, and other materials which greatly damage the environment if not recycled.
In addition to glass, a fluorescent lamp consists contains liquid mercury and evaporated mercury, some phosphor powder, and metals on the end-caps and heated filaments. A single four- foot fluorescent tube contains from 5 to 50 mg. of mercury.
When lamps are sent to landfills, or especially when incineration is used as an alternative disposal method, mercury vapors are released that can travel over 200 miles! Mercury is highly toxic to the humans and particularly poisonous to our kidneys. Once absorbed by the body, mercury is distributed by the blood to all tissues of the human body, and it easily crosses the placental barrier; prenatal exposure can lead to a variety of health problems including a severe form of cerebral palsy.
- Each year, an estimated 600 million fluorescent lamps are disposed of in U.S. landfills amounting to 30,000 pounds of mercury waste.
- The Environmental Protection Agency reports that 187 incinerators nationwide emit approximately 70,000 total pounds of mercury into the environment each year.
- In 1992, mercury-containing lamps were added to the United States’ Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) list of hazardous substances. (The EPA’s regulatory threshold of 2 mg./liter is usually exceeded by mercury-containing lamps).
- Mercury was number three on the 1997 list of hazardous substances as outlined by the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) and the EPA.
- Why Recycle? Recycling guarantees all of your hazardous and universal waste will be properly recycled by EPA-compliant U.S. recycling facilities.
3. Recycling is Cost Effective
Over the lifecycle of a fluorescent lamp, the cost to recycle is less than 1% of the cost of ownership. Recycling your lamps and obtaining a certificate of recycling is also a guaranteed way to avoid fines and costly enforcement action which can easily exceed the cost of lamp recycling.
It is possible to keep mercury out of the air by sending intact lamps to a reputable lamp recycling company, where it is estimated that only 0.2% to 0.4% of the mercury is emitted to the atmosphere. Mercury containing lamps are now quite inexpensive to recycle. However, the process still costs more than the recycled content is worth, so users must pay a small fee to have them recycled.