CFL Bulbs

[Rick Rowlands]

Here is an article about the health risks of CFLs in the Boston Globe:
http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2008/02/26/mercury_leaks_found_as_new_bulbs_break/

The part that jumped out at me was this paragraph:

"Massachusetts is also ramping up a compact fluorescent recycling program and in May will ban disposal of any intact compact fluorescent lamp in trash. However, broken ones - because their mercury would probably have been vaporized - may be thrown away."

So I could either make a special trip to some faraway recylcing center with my spent CFL bulb, or I could..... "Honey, get the hammer!"

[AllanY2525]

     

Sorry this is off the topic here - this addresses the question: "What metals are in
a computer hard disk?" posted in this thread.  Re-cycled computers have quite a
bit of valuable metals in them, not just in their hard drives.  They also contain
some pretty TOXIC materials [albeit in very small quantities] that make
recycling them a VERY good thing for our environment.

The full article can be read at:   http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,1946290,00.asp


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The Hard Drive: Spin Some Heavy Metal

Clever chemistry is what lets you put thousands of songs and photos on your hard drive
without having to add another room to your house. We're seeing bigger storage in
smaller packages (think iPod), but getting more in less hasn't been easy.

Hard disk surface

The idea behind hard drives is simple: Store the ones and zeroes using tiny magnets, and
info won't be lost when the power dies. But the chemistry gets tricky, especially when we
shrink magnets to cram more, and hence more data, onto disks.

For the last decade or so, the magnetic coating most often used on hard disks has been
a metal alloy of cobalt, chromium, and platinum. The first two make up 50 to 60 percent
of the mixture and provide the magnetism.

The platinum keeps the coating's magnetic regions from flipping directions too easily.
A region's direction determines whether it represents a one or a zero, so accidental
flips make storage unreliable.

"You want the magnet to have a strong preference for one direction or the other,
and it's the platinum that does this," says James A. Bain, associate director of Carnegie
Mellon University's Data Storage Systems Center.

The disk is a thin, shiny, circular piece of aluminum or glass that looks much like
a DVD. The ultrathin magnetic layer is sprayed on it all at once. "You want it to
break up into small regions," says Bain. Each magnetized region can store one
binary digit—more regions, more data.


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[irishbobcat]

Rick,

I believe the alternative energy industry can benefit from tax cuts, tax credits, and grants for solar, wind, water, and other power sources.
If you believe America and Ohio can continue to build a civilization on liquefied fossil fuels that will last forever makes no sense. In the absence of alternative energy, we will see a worldwide devastating shock to the world economies and threaten world democracy worldwide. To prevent us from being in a resource-poor situation, we must immediately move to make our area energy independent and convert our centralized electric grids into more efficient and locally owned sources of power generation.

While you believe government is not the answer, I believe the best antipoverty program for America is when we have a strong middle class with well-paying jobs and high levels of worker security. Without governments stepping in to tell businesses how to operate, this has been achieved when having government and the law authorize the existence of corporations and providing for their security and similarly authorizing the existence of labor unions and guaranteeing their security.

When organized capital and organized labor have equal levels of power, society stabilizes, as we saw between the 40's and 70's. When government tilts in favor of corporations, job security drops, wages drop, corporate profits soar, CEO's become richer, and corporate corruption runs amuck.

As state representative, I want to equal the playing field, and have the time to work with private investors to bring green energy jobs to the valley.

Sincerely,

Dennis Spisak

Independent Green Party Candidate for State Representative-60th District

campaign-site: HTTP://votespisak.tripod.com

[Rick Rowlands]

Jay:

I agree. There are many facilities that should be created in this valley.....if we had the leadership to go out and bring such companies to this area. it's time for Mahoning Valley politicians and especialy the voters to start "thinking outside the box."

Dennis Spisak

Independent Green Party Candidate for State Representative-60th district

HTTP://votespisak.tripod.com

Dennis,

There is nothing stopping you from starting your own "green" company and try to make a profit from doing those things that you have been talking about for the last several months.   Your opinion seems to be that "government" has to be involved will all these ideas you have.  You are even trying to get into the government to push your ideas.  Why not take a private sector approach, find some investors and do it yourself.  If these ideas truly have merit and can be profitable you could find some startup capital.

You seem to have all these solutions to problems but you won't do anything about your solutions but preach to us that government has to do this or government has to do that.  Government is not the answer and I am frankly tired of people who won't do it for themselves but wants government to take MY money to do what they want to do.

[northside lurker]

Why wasn't such a fuss made over thermometers, years ago?

Here's an NPR story I quickly found:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=7431198

[Towntalk]

Jay:

The fact that there is a way to properly dispose of them is good news as far as it goes, but if that bulb should break in a home or business, people will be exposed to mercury, a hazardous material, and will require well defined cleanup by people experienced in dealing with hazardous waste. That is the law.

Why is mercury used anyway knowing that it is a hazardous material?

Last night, I tripped over a cord and knocked over a light, breaking a standard light bulb ... accidents do happen, but at least with standard light bulbs you don;t have to deal with hazardous materials.

Surely science can develop an environmentally friendly light bulb that does not contain hazardous materials.

[jay]

CFL bulbs can be taken to the hazardous waste collection site in Canfield, Ohio on October 11.  Additional information will be posted in the fall.

[Towntalk]

Couldn't agree more.

First the environmentalists were singing the praises of ethanol, and now they've done an about face ... it's hazardous.

They sing the praises of the environmentally friendly light bulbs ... disregarding its mercury content.

They extole wind energy but their counterparts in PETA proclaim that they are killing birds.

Again they talk about bioenergy as our salvation, but the United Nations calls it a humanitarian disaster.

They want us to stop using natural gas and turn to wood burning stoves but at the same time The Sierra Club fights to stop cutting down trees.

They want us to stop eating beef because cows produce methane gas that is destroying the ozone ... eat more fish some of them say, but Greenpeace condemns fishing.

Still others are saying that we must reduce Earth's population ... how? Mass sterilization? Euthanasia?

They set guidelines as to when the end will come, but the day itself comes and goes and we're still here

What can I say? It reminds me of the preachers that proclaim the Second Coming will come on such and such a date, and when the day itself comes and goes, they have an excuse ready to go.

[Rick Rowlands]

It is very difficult to permanently damage the environment, contrary to what the treehuggers say.  In the 1860s the Oil City area was inundated with oil wells.  Spilled crude oil was EVERYWHERE, as well as sludge, metals, garbage, etc.  Just look at some pictures of what that area looked like.  Now visit that same area today.  With the exception of finding small dimater pipelines running through the woods and other scattered remains, nature has completely recovered all of that area.

About the CFL bulbs, I will laugh my rear end off in 10 years when the levels of mercury in the environment rise to the point where a whole new round of superfund projects have to be implemented to address the problem.

Have you noticed that we are now living in Seinfeld's "Bizarro World".  Environmentalists pushing products that contain hazardous materials that they KNOW will contaminate the environment, Republicans voting to nominate a liberal for President, economists saying that we an continue to print money from thin air with no consequences, etc. etc.  I wonder if I am the only sane person left, or has the sane became insane and I'm now certifiable? 

[Towntalk]

Tonight I just posted a second warning about biofuels and their effect on the environment from a source that has a long history of warning about Global Warming.

http://farrell-report.tripod.com

Go to the Global Warning page.

Here is the question, the new lightbulbs that the Global Warming supporters are pushing contains Mercury and in disposing of these bulbs, they must be treated as hazardous waste, and should one break in our home, hazardous waste teams would need to do the cleanup.

Earlier, I spoke of recycling auto batteries ... these batteries contain lead, another hazardous waste, but what would the long term effects be on the environment/ We all recall the problems that were present when the old steel mills were torn down, so wouldn't there be serious damage done in the land where a plant would be built to recycle batteries?

Just asking.

[Towntalk]

I was watching a program on the History Channel just last night that showed a company that recycles car batteries (Modern Marvles) and was amazed at the number of batteries that this company accumulates this way, and how many different materials they extract from those batteries.

Think for a moment about how many jobs could be created by setting up a plant that recycled not only car batteries, but computers as well.

[jay]

What metals are in a computer hard drive?  A hard drive is a heavy device.

[irishbobcat]

Jay:

I agree. There are many facilities that should be created in this valley.....if we had the leadership to go out and bring such companies to this area. it's time for Mahoning Valley politicians and especialy the voters to start "thinking outside the box."

Dennis Spisak

Independent Green Party Candidate for State Representative-60th district

HTTP://votespisak.tripod.com

[jay]

An electronics recycling drive is taking place on Saturday, February 16, at the Southside Annex, 2801 Market Street, in Youngstown.  I'll call to find out if CFL bulbs are consider electronic devices.

It is my understanding that these electronic devices are disassembled to reclaim valuable metals.  Maybe our community should start a electronics metal reclamation facility to serve the entire Mahoning Valley.