cross-posted from: https://lemmy.crimedad.work/post/45354
cross-posted from: https://pixelfed.crimedad.work/p/crimedad/645809278769635471
These just go out with the other recycling, right?
I'm not clear if this is a legitimate question but….if so, it depends. In our city you can take them to Home Depot/Lowes for disposal. They should not be thrown out with garbage.
They contain mercury. This should not be taken lightly. Please dispose of the correctly.
Kind of wild that they were ever on the market in the first place.
The amounts is absolutely minimal and mostly "harmles" even if accidents were to happen. To my knowledge they don't contain actual liquid mercury but only the vapours. Of you break them by accident just ventilate the room well and you'll be fine. Not to say it's healthy, mercury is a serious matter and should be disposed of correctly. But no reason to be overly concerned if you break one by accident.
I'm sure the risk presented by a couple of CFLs to just me is pretty small, but all together it seems like a significant problem for everyone.
As far as I know any exposure is bad. It builds up in your body like lead and there's no way to get it out once it's there.
I blame lead for a good bit of mental damage in boomers, and it's been linked to increases in crime.
All fluorescent lights contain mercury, they can't be made without it. These CFL bulbs contain significantly less mercury than the large fluorescent tubes though.
And mercury is a metal, so that means they go out with commingled bottles and cans. Got it!
You really need to check. Most of the time they are not put in with normal recycling because of the mercury hazard.
If your city has a hazardous waste disposal location, you can take them there. In my area, it's the same place that i take old paint and stain, batteries, solvents, tube tvs etc. our area has two dumps but only one of them takes hazardous materials, so I would do a little research.
This right here is what I do. Ours also takes dead Christmas trees this time of year to turn into mulch
In Germany, pretty much every supermarket has 2 special bins near the entrance, one for lightbulbs and one for batteries. Maybe there's something similar in your area?
Otherwise I'd check with shops or hardware stores that sell these and/or a local electrician how they dispose of these and whether they'd be willing to take yours as well.
That's so good, should be standard everywhere.
You really have to google your disposal service. It is by no means uniform across the country or even your state, but rather it depends on what kind of facilities your local disposal service has. For instance I moved from one county to another, and discovered I was not allowed to put paper milk cartons in the recycle bin. County A's disposal company could recycle them, county B's couldn't.
It depends. Are these heavy bulbs?
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