It can seem a green contradiction: Compact fluorescent lights - those spiral energy-efficient bulbs used to fight global warming - contain mercury, a toxic metal. If the bulb breaks, mercury vapor can harm infants, pregnant women, and children. If tossed in landfills or incinerators, discarded bulbs can pollute the environment.
Now, as sales balloon, Maine legislators have voted overwhelmingly for first-in-the-nation legislation requiring manufacturers to reduce the mercury in all fluorescent lights and pay for recycling each bulb safely. That cost is estimated to be 50 cents to $1 per bulb. .
Governor John Baldacci of Maine, a supporter, is expected to sign the bill, which was passed over the last week. Similar bills regulating compact fluorescent lights - or CFLs, as they are called - are pending in Massachusetts and Vermont.
"We want people to use CFLs, and this is going to make it much easier for them to recycle them at hardware stores and municipal collection drop-off centers for free," said Michael Bender of the Vermont-based Mercury Policy Project, which supported the bill. "Today almost all of the bulbs are going in the trash, where they can break. People aren't aware of the exposure risk."
Sales of the curly bulbs, which use about 75 percent less energy and can last many times longer than traditional incandescent bulbs, are skyrocketing, driven by consumers' growing awareness of global warming and the long-term cost savings.
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Maine Targets Mercury in Bulbs
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Bill would have makers reduce it, pay for recycling
By Beth Daley
The Boston Globe, May 29, 2009
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