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Disposal & Recycling

As low energy light bulbs, called also CFLs, contain a small amount of mercury, there was uncertainty whether they were safe for recycling. Toxicologists say, though, unbroken bulbs are absolutely safe, and several bulbs would need to be smashed to cause danger.

This type of bulb cannot be disposed in a normal rubbish bin. The reason of that is that the mercury could be released into the air or from land-fill into the environment. That might cause a problem, as mercury is a toxic substance.

In case the low energy light bulb is smashed, the room needs to be ventilated and emptied for at least 15 minutes. Special care needs to be done while cleaning the debris, a vacuum cleaner should not be used and dust should not be inhaled. Instead of using vacuum cleaner, it is better to use a dustpan and a brush. Then the floor should be wiped with a wet cloth.

It is important to use rubber gloves and put the smashed bulb in to a sealed plastic bag. Then the bag should be taken to the local council for disposal.

If a used unbroken bulb can be recycled, there are two options:
1. It can be taken to the retailer. In order to do that, the owner needs to be a member of the Distributor Takeback Scheme http://www.valpak.co.uk/dts/
2. Other option is to dispose the bulbs in the local Household Waste Recycling Centres where there will be special bin for them.

Recycling of CFLs has numerous advantages. It reduces landfill waste as well as potential contamination of land and water, improves health and safety and makes economic use of all components.

The Household Waste Recycling Centres make sure the bulbs do not break in the containers they are collected. In this way uncontrolled emissions of mercury vapour to the atmosphere is stopped and both people and the environment are safe.

If the bulbs had been smashed, they are collected in heavy duty sacks or drums. Then, they are transported to the lamp recycling facilities where they are processed and then distributed as recycled products. The recycling companies make sure the new products are as clean as possible for maximum market appeal.

In general, one recycling system crushes lamps below 1.2 metres. If a lamp is above that high, a separate crusher is required. In modern recycling centres both mercury and other lamps types can be recycled together.

There are four recycling sections in most Recycling Centres:
1. The Electrical Control Cabinet – where the whole plant is operated.
2. The Dual Separator Unit – the lamps are initially broken and are separated from the components.
3. The Dust Removal Filter – the dust is drawn off to 5-micron size, making sure it does not escape into the environment.
4. The Activated Carbon Stack – removes even the finest dust and mercury vapour before being released to the atmosphere.

The lamps are put in the in the loader mounted of the Dual Separator. It can collect about 200 litres of drums of debris or even whole lamps, apart from lineal fluorescent tubes over 2 ft length. If a lamp is higher, it needs to be crushed before being placed in the separator. The loader door is closed then and raised to empty its content into the drum of the separator. The debris is made smaller and the phosphor powder is dusted up. Then the glass cullet is removed from the debris and put in the other section to remove the dust. All dust is collected and put into a suitable container.

Recycled fluorescent tubes produce glass cullet and plain aluminium end caps. A mixture of debris, containing more plastic components and metal pieces, produce a glass-free similar mixture of materials.

About 7-8 drums of lamp debris can be operated within an hour. Each drum takes 600 x 4ft lamps which gives 38.400 per working day.

Links to some Household Waste Recycling Centres:
South West England: www.pan-uk.org/disposal/sw_Eng.htm
Northern England: www.pan-uk.org/disposal/nth_eng.htm
South East England: www.pan-uk.org/disposal/se_Eng.htm