Any news on how these bulbs are going to be reused so they don’t end up in our landfills which are filling up?

As someone who sells light bulbs for a living, I am less enthusiastic than most about compact fluorescent bulbs. This is due to the fact that the ones currently available contain significant amounts of mercury. If one of these bulbs should break inside of a person’s home, it could cause a challenging disposal situation. It is my belief that the technology should progress to a point at which the mercury levels are low or nonexistent before people changeover their entire homes. Another consideration is that as these bulbs burn out, they will most likely be thrown away as though they are normal rubbish and landfills will have incredibly high levels of mercury in their soil as a result.

Most CFLs today on the market contain less than 5mgs of mercury and there are CFL options out there that contain as little as 1.5mgs of mercury- which can hardly be called a “significant amounts of mercury” considering that many item in your home contain 100s of times more of mercury including your computer. Mercury levels in CFLs can never be “nonexistent” since mercury is a necessary component of a CFL and there is no other known element that is capable of replacing it. But CFLs actually prevent more mercury from entering the environment. According to the Union of Concerned Scientist, “a coal-fired power plant will emit about four times more mercury to keep an incandescent bulb glowing, compared with a CFL of the same light output”.

When I think of the number of bulbs I use, and multiply it by the number of others who do the same, and then think about disposing of “said bulbs” I BELIEVE the mercury content IS VERY signigicant. And, personally I do not care for the light that these “miracle” bulbs produce. I cannot believe that whole COUNTRIES are mandating that these mercury-laden bulbs, not just Sylvania’s but other brands, be the ONLY ones people use. How many times are we going to be misinformed about a BREAKTHROUGH or ENVIRONMENTAL thing and then find out the CURE is WORSE than the problem? Another example, the greatest HOAX in the history of man, aka Al Gore, ” man is causing the earth to warm, man is causing the earth to warm, etc. etc. etc” Bull Roar Mother Nature is in charge, as she also is with this “putting mercury into our underground water ” WATER WHICH WE DRINK. I am a nature lover, I recyle, I do my best to preserve the environment. But the green movement and this carbon-footpint junk goes WAYYYYYYYYYY tooo far and will DESTROY our world, not save it.