Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Are Low Energy Light Bulbs a Danger to our Environment?
Looking to buy a few new lightbulbs earlier, and trying to choose between low-energy (CFL) and LED, I found out something interesting about CFL bulbs. I read that they contain mercury and so should be recycled rather than added to the general waste.
In terms of quantifying the risk, things seem uncertain. Many leads online suggest that whilst the mercury in the bulbs is minimal, the cumulative effect of many bulbs leeching mercury into the environment does pose a long-term risk.
I haven't yet been able to track down any official UK source that offers an opinion on the issue. There were a rash of news stories about the issue 8 to 10 years ago. This one from the BBC quoted the Environment Agency. Another from the Telegraph covered the issue in 2010.
The web also offered up a Belgian government web page (in English) which seems concerned about the issue and an EU one which rather downplayed it.
I have to admit that all this had rather passed me by, and I suspect that I'm not the only one.
If you are concerned, it seems that there are a couple of courses of action open to you. Firstly, you can switch to LED bulbs which are more expensive but longer lasting (25 years!). Alternatively (or additionally) you can ensure that your CFLs are properly recycled.
Looking for local information about recycling hasn't turned up much. Haringey Council offer a pretty uninformative web page which:
- Offers the Wood Green recycling centre
- Suggests in-store recycling (supposedly to be provided under the WEE directive)
- Suggests the Recolight website, but at the time of writing provided no link to it. (Recolight was set up by the industry which supplies the lights).
The recycling centre seems a little far away for small everyday things. So I checked to see if Sainsbury's have any facility and couldn't see anything. I then tweeted them and they didn't seem to know. The exchange ended with a holding answer.
Locally, the Recolight website offers the Haringey Recycling Centre, but shows it at the Hornsey High Street address it left several years ago (which didn't inspire confidence). They also list Medlock on Green Lanes as a commercial recycling point.
So, I rang Medlock to ask if it would be okay for me as a local to drop some CFL bulbs into their recycling point. The response was what I've come to expect of Medlock. It was an immediate and positive and friendly yes. The chap I spoke with, Stuart, said it would be fine as long as I'm not bringing in barrow-loads of them. "We're always happy to help our neighbours", he said. He mentioned that the recycling point is in the car park (accessed via Effingham Road). In the very unlikely event that anyone asks, he said, just say Stuart said it was okay.
So thanks to Medlock, there is a local CFL recycling option to use, if you want it. If you do use Medlock, also consider combining it with a visit to the store to buy that new light fitting, light switch, lamp shade etc.
As to Sainsbury's and Haringey Council - buck your ideas up!
Tags for Forum Posts: recycling
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by John D on
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That seems quite reasonable ( apart from using " less " rather than " fewer " ) We, the public, are our own worst enemy.
Sainsbury's have also removed the clothes recycling containers because people used to drag clothes out of the bins, looking for items they could sell. Nothing wrong with that, but they couldn't be bothered to put the stuff they didn't want back into the bins and left it strewn about on the ground. That also used to happen with the clothes recycling bins at Turnpike Lane station.
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Permalink Reply by Gordon T on
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Yes, and their notice goes on to say you can still recycle clothes by taking then to the Sainsburys in-store customer service desk. Sainsburys have an arrangement with Oxfam, it also says.
You can still recycle 'small electricals' up to about radio/kettle/iron size if what you've got will fit in the chute into the container at Sainsburys recycling zone: lightbulbs are a named exclusion.
As for the fluorescent bulb mercury metal risk, it's negligible from one broken bulb unless you are one of those very rare people with a specific response to mercury. And for context, much of the population are walking around with multi-gram quantities of mercury metal in their mouths. Dental fillings, just saying.
Mercury compounds, as in cumulative exposure to fish from contaminated seas (Google 'Minamata') are quite another and much much higher-risk thing.
The chemistry qualification doesn't get out much these days!
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The long ( 4ft, 6ft ) fluorescent tubes also contain mercury - a lot more than the CFL type.
We used to be told that the phosphorescent coatings on the inner surface of the tubes were poisonous - some barium compound ?
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Yep plenty of mercury in them. The toxic lamps are long gone, they vanished in the 80's.
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When Adam were a lad (and I at least was growing up), they contained beryllium which is poisonous. Long since replaced by other safer materials.
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