Compact Fluorescent Lights (CFL’S), A Downside

CFL’s have a downside that is important to know about: they contain a small amount of mercury, a toxic substance. Before you get too upset, here is a quote from the October 2007 article in the Scientific American entitled “Toxic Bulbs”:

Each CFL contains about five milligrams of mercury, about equal to the amount of ink on the tip of a ballpoint pen. Of course mercury does not pose the same kind of risk as, for instance mercury in fish (the U.S. Food and Drug Administration sets a limit of 0.17 milligram in a six-ounce can of tuna). But it can leach out of landfills into water supplies or become airborne if incinerated).

For now at least, most of these bulbs are being thrown into the trash. Limited amounts have started to be recycled, and recycling appears to be the prudent approach for the long run. The Scientific American article quoted above cites a program started in Vermont by True Value Hardware and one in California, by Wal-Mart. One should inquire to the store from which they buy CFL’s, if they take them back for recycling.

For now, it is arguable that CFL usage overall has a reducing effect with respect to mercury output into the environment. At present, discarded CFL’s are projected to yield about 10 tons of Mercury waste annually (Scientific American, “Toxic Bulbs”, Oct. ’07). However, widespread household use of CFL’s could theoretically save as much as 7% of current U.S. electrical usage. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compact_fluorescent_lamp

Coal fired power plants currently put out about 48 tons of airborne mercury each year. As a result, according to the EPA:

(when coal power is used) the mercury released from powering an incandescent lamp for five years exceeds the total of (a) the mercury released by powering a comparably luminous CFL for the same period and (b) the mercury contained in the lamp”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compact_fluorescent_lamp

In otherwords, they calculate that CFL’s, even without recycling, cut down on mercury emissions into the environment by offsetting output from power plants. Additionally, usage of CFL’s will have a large impact in reducing greenhouse gas emissions, particularly carbon dioxide, so overall it still looks like a big positive to switch from traditional incandescent bulbs to CFL’s.

And finally, Scientific American says “And if you break a CFL”:

………Open windows to dissipate mercury vapor. Then While wearing gloves, use sticky tape to pick up the small pieces and powdery residue from the bulb’s interior. Place the tape and large pieces in a plastic bag. After Vacuuming the area, place the vacuum bag inside doubly sealed plastic bags before discarding.

………To find a CFL recycling program in your area, go to www. lamprecycle.org.

Creatively Pressuring the Mechanism

As we all know, old habits are hard to break.

We are generally quite mechanical beings, as we go through our day, largely governed by muscle memory and thought loops that serve as practical time-savers in order to get the “job” done. Routine tasks would be much more time consuming if we had to think about every little step. The downside is that we tend not to exercise the spontaneous, more creative parts of ourselves. Try sometime to pull back your thoughts and stop your motions and just observe the state of your mind and body during your daily routine. You will find that even remembering to do this is very difficult to do. You might do it once or twice as a novelty, but then the magnetic pull of the hum drum beat of everyday life pulls our thoughts and actions back into routine, and we are lost again in the task at hand.

As old habits are hard to break, new habits can be equally hard to instill in our-selves.

There has been a lot of buzz lately about building conservation into our lives. I think this is a positive trend as conservation, for example of petroleum, has the potential to have a much bigger impact in the short, and even mid-term as opposed to technological upgrades and breakthroughs.

Here is a list of some of the habits that I have built up over the last few years in the name of conservation, some obvious ones that have been widely advertised, and some more obscure and idiosyncratic.

- replacing incandescent bulbs with cfl’s.

- not using lights during the daytime in the bathroom (this obviously depends on your window situation)

- turning off the water during tooth brushing.

- Sponge washing the car with a gallon of water in a bucket using organic soap (my favorite is Dr. Bronner’s Pure Castile soap) and then a very quick rinse, the minimum needed to get most of the soap off. I don’t care that my car is not spotless, my image is in no way tied into my car as is many’s.

- I turn off the light while brushing my teeth at night.

- Unplugging my toothbrush charger two days out of every three (more or less).

- Shorter, cooler showers.

- Relentless turning off of lights in unoccupied rooms.

- Instead of wrapping uneaten food like ½ avocados, or melons, etc in plastic wrap, I use permanent plastic containers.

One change that can cumulatively make a huge difference, but for which I have not yet developed consistent habit yet, is keeping vehicle tires at optimum air pressure. I really need to apply some pressure into this little matter of my life.

Thinking of other ways to save is a good exercise in creativity, helping to break us out of our mechanistic lives.

Communing

Got off my duff yesterday, grabbed my stash of 20 or so CFL’s (lots of one dollar specials these days) and headed over to an area where I know that folks generally have a tougher go in life than I do.  I rang some doorbells, knocked on some doors and corralled people on the street to give the lights out.  Most were very friendly and appreciative, and I had some very enjoyable conversations, got some much needed vitamin D and exercise.

Brunch yesterday morning: greek omelet, bacon, pale ale and a strawberry shake.  The waitress commented on the weirdness of the combo and then smiled and added that it was something like she would order, hah!

Hello and Happy Earth Day

Here goes. Welcome to the inaugural post of 2 Relight. I am not sure exactly what this will be all about, but I have some general ideas. The initial material focus will be on compact fluorescent lights (CFL’s), their advantages (and disadvantages), and my efforts to get more people to use them. But it will not only be about this effort, it is mostly about stimulating and inspiring others into thought, self-exploration, growth, action and maybe change in ourselves and our communities. This thing grew out of thoughts I have had over the last few years about the possibilities for high impact community work that ca  be undertaken effectively by individuals or possibly small groups. Most of us have sent a check or two off to charities, and this is good, but often that money passes through layers of bureaucracy and we really don’t know how effectively it is utilized.

Well, I have had a few of ideas spring from this line of thought, a couple of which I have followed up on so far. The most active of these at present is trying to get as many CFL’s into the hands of as many folks as possible at a level of spending that I can afford. That is one of the first steps, looking at what you presently spend per year on donations, and picking that amount, or some fraction of it, or even adding a bit too it for use towards your own efforts. If you can’t afford anything then maybe you can put in a little volunteer time, tutoring, helping an elderly neighbor or some such.

The light bulb effort started early this year when I was visiting my elderly father. His part time caregiver just barely squeaks by economically, with a disabled husband and son, she constantly struggles with bills. In addition to giving her a small cash gift, I asked her how many commonly used lights she had in her house and what wattages they are. I then bought her a gift of CFL ’s to replace all the high use incandescent bulbs (IB’s) and some extras for replacements and to give to family and friends. I then replaced IB’s in my Dad’s house. It’s a way to save someone some money while educating them at the same time about being able to cut future costs, and making a little contribution towards cutting energy use and lowering fossil fuel burning in power plants with all the attendant benefits to our local and world communities.

When I got home from visiting Dad I kept the ball rolling by buying a bag full of heavily discounted CFL’s at the local grocer and hanging them on the doorknobs of all the apartments in our small complex. I printed out little notes that I placed on each one, explaining the benefits and asking that they be passed on if not needed. I now plan to buy discounted bulbs as I run across them and as I can afford to and distribute them in low-income neighborhoods. I see this as the way to stimulate maximum benefit from this activity, educating and saving money for people that can most benefit from it, and lowering our fossil fuel footprint, good for everybody, everywhere.

Bulbs distributed to date: about 40.