Yes, CFLs do contain mercury, but in minute amounts – approximately 5mg per bulb, or about 1/100th of the amount of mercury a household thermometer may contain, and an even smaller fraction of what an old thermostat may contain. They, like many household products such as paint, used motor oil, pesticides, and some cleaning products, should not be thrown away in regular trash, but, assuming they are recycled properly, there is no reason that the mercury contained in them should be released into the environment. To find your nearest recycling/disposal location for CFLs (and other household items), you can visit www.earth911.org. If a CFL does break, you do not need to call in a hazardous waste crew – according to the EPA, you can clean it up yourself according to the certain guidelines that you can find here.
Please don’t take this information on CFLs to mean that they are the only technology we, at Energy Trek, advocate. We are for people taking any steps, no matter how big or small, to save energy, including, but not limited to, changing light bulbs, appliances, and vehicles, as well as changing energy-use habits.
LED bulbs are excellent, and, as their costs come down and they become more widespread, they may supplant CFLs – especially as they use even less energy (about 1/10th that of an equivalently bright incandescent bulb), are readily dimmable, and may last longer than CFLs. Nonetheless, CFLs are a viable, safe, money and energy-saving alternative to incandescent bulbs, as they use about 1/4 of the power of an equivalently bright incandescent, they last about 10X as long as incandescents, and, now, dimmable and three-way versions have become readily available.
Finally, whether or not you believe in global warming, all fossil fuels, including both coal and oil, are limited resources. Their supplies will not last forever. Saving energy in your home will, especially as electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles become available, help us to break our foreign oil habit while also preventing us from having to radically increase our energy supply by building new power plants.
And, if that’s not enough for you, saving energy in your home, however you do so – using CFLs, better insulating your house, replacing your appliances with more efficient models, choosing more efficient means of transportation, generating your own power with solar or wind-generation, and/or changing some of your habits (all of which you can find information on at Energy Trek) – WILL SAVE YOU MONEY. Yes, there is a buy-in cost, but consider these to be investments that will eventually more than pay for themselves. It’s just dollars and sense.
