Comments on: A Confession

By: » A green gift basket for the earth. - Mom Goes Green

» A green gift basket for the earth. - Mom Goes Green — Mon, 11 May 2009 13:42:01 +0000

[...] family put together a basket that included reusable bags, CFLs, a stainless steel reusable water bottle and green cleaners. Instead of using an actual basket, [...]

By: » Give them your tired, your poor, your burnt CFLs… - Mom Goes Green

» Give them your tired, your poor, your burnt CFLs… - Mom Goes Green — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 08:11:36 +0000

[...] took a little bit of heat for recommending CFLs (compact fluorescent lightbulbs) to readers. Some people really object to them because of their [...]

By: Doreen

Doreen — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 04:09:40 +0000

Rick – I absolutely agree. Education needs to start happening. Clear instructions and a kit with purchase would be a great idea. Thanks for the tips too.

By: Rick at Post Haste Media

Rick at Post Haste Media — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 23:07:41 +0000

The Happy Friar has a very good point. While the overall energy and cost savings of CFLs is a gigantic plus, the marketers have not made a very good effort at stressing the importance of recycling the bulbs and the importance of careful handling. While finding a place to recycle these bulbs is not easy, here are a couple of tips. Eric Guerin from SmartMarket Movie created a video for Waste Management telling people how to do it properly and sells mail-in recycling kits for those in areas where recycling is not available or easy. It would be nice if these kits were provided “free of charge” when you purchase a CFL, but until that happens, here is the URL to the site.

http://www.thinkgreenfromhome.com

By: Doreen

Doreen — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 03:48:03 +0000

Happy – Thanks for your comments. I, too, had some of these concerns however, take a look at the following (it put it into perspective for me):
http://www.pdfdownload.org/pdf2html/pdf2html.php?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.energystar.gov%2Fia%2Fpartners%2Fpromotions%2Fchange_light%2Fdownloads%2FFact_Sheet_Mercury.pdf&images=yes

By: The Happy Friar

The Happy Friar — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 02:57:40 +0000

only issues with CFL’s is the mercury content. I did figures one time: the amount of mercury thermometers (which were banned because of the mercury) sold in the world @ their peak vs the # of CFL’s sold in 1 year in the EU.

Best figures I could find:
Hg thermometers have ~0.6grams of Hg. CFL’s have ~0.1 grams.
thermometers sold “millions” a year world wide (I estimated 40mil). CFL’s sell 2billion in EU alone.

That’s 24,000Kg of mercury from thermometers a year & 200,000kg’s from energy efficient lights for the EU alone.

CFL’s are supposed to be recycled but mot people don’t know that & it’s nearly impossible to find a recycling location. Plus, in theory, if one breaks & mercury is spread through the room, it could be a health hazard & need special cleanup. In theory. LED lights are the most efficient & safest on the environment but costs a TON of $$ for a relatively small amount of light (1 1watt LED light = ~15/20watt incandescent vs 1 15watt CFL = 60/75/100 incandescent) at ~$100 for 1 1watt “bulb”.

but by no means stop buying & using: more sales = more research in to better alternatives (ironically, incandescent are safest for the environment physically, they just use a lot of electricity)

By: Doreen

Doreen — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 03:25:58 +0000

Zac- Thanks for visiting my blog! And as you gradually replace all of those light bulbs, think of all the energy you’re saving and pollution you’re preventing! Great choice!

By: Zac Johnson

Zac Johnson — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 17:27:05 +0000

I went to Costco and picked up a bunch of boxes of these new energy saving lights. The new house I bought has like 50 something lights inside and out of it. I replaced a bunch of them already, just waiting for a few of the other ones to blow out. The energy saving ones look much cooler anyway! Zac Johnsons last blog post..Earn Big Cash! Win a Free iPod Touch & Flip Mino Video Camera and More