lamprecycle.info

Your commercial and industrial lighting/electrical specialist. We do retrofits, relamps, generator supply/install, pole lighting maintenance/installation, electrical maintenance, circuit installation, neon maintenance, sign install/maintenance, panel install/maintenance and much more. Monthly lighting maintenance packages available for property mgmt companies, retail chains, industrial chains, schools, restaurant chains, etc. Visit our website at BrothersLighting.com to get started today!

Recycling is a big environmental issue these days, but have you ever considered that your lamp can be recycled too? Lamps, light bulbs, and fluorescent lamps take up a very large share of garbage dumps and land fills. Billions of pounds of lamps are thrown out each year, and some of them even leak heavy metals, gases, and other unwanted chemicals. By taking some simple steps to recycling these products, you can contribute toward a greener planet and a healthier Earth, so let's get started.

The primary culprit in improperly disposing of lamps these days is large facilities, that is, hospitals, offices, shipping companies, restaurants, factories, schools, and universities. However, if consumer level users recycled their lamps, we could cut down on more than half of our lamp related waste in the United States. Also, if you are involved in any of these facilities, for example if you are on the parent teacher board of your local grammar school, or work in an office building or factory, you can suggest that your institution take serious steps toward recycling.

 

 

The primary reason improper lamp disposal is bad for the environment is something known as mercury leakage. When you throw out a fluorescent lamp, it will invariably go to the trash dump or landfill where it will likely be broken. Fluorescent lamps are powered through a chemical process that involves mercury to provide light. When a fluorescent lamp is broken, it leaks environmentally harmful amounts of mercury oxide, which is not only poisonous to plants and animals, but can be damaging to the human central nervous system. This is particularly a problem when landfills incinerate trash, which emits serious levels of mercury into the atmosphere and into our lungs, but also a problem when landfills leak into ground water sources, streams, and rivers, which has a significant chance of infecting our groundwater but also damages local wild life.

Most states have been passing laws or regulations about the recycling of lamps, light bulbs, and fluorescent lamps. Unfortunately, there is little economic incentive to recycling these products, as there is very little intrinsic 're use' value. Re use value is, simply, the economic value we can extract out or reusing a resource. For example, when you recycle copper wire or aluminum cans, the base metals can be reprocessed and reused for other applications. However, when you recycle a lamp or fluorescent bulb, the only issue is the proper disposal of the materials and the environmental consequences thereof.