Happy Green News!

I have been searching for quite some time now on Compact Fluorescent Light bulbs and their safety vs. their environmental friendliness. Finally, I found something! Slate.com has an article that I suggest you read here. (It's not very long, and it's very informative. I know you can spare 5 minutes.) It tells you how much mercury is really in each bulb, and what this means to you and your health, and how to properly dispose of them.

What I love about this article is that it gives you links to a LOT of previously unknown information. For instance, here's an article on what to do if your CFL breaks. For those of you who are more science-minded, here's information on OSHA's (Occupational Safety and Health Administration's) permissable exposure limit for mercury vapor in a workplace environment, and, my personal favorite, how to correctly dispose of CFLs in your area. That website will also help you find local drop-offs for other potentially hazardous materials; just use the search bar at the top. This is information that I have been looking for but was unable to find no matter how hard I looked (Fort Wayne's environmental website is a joke). Here's what to do if you live in or near the Fort Wayne area. Like the Slate.com article says, you can also use RecyclePak, which ships you containers and you ship them back the light bulbs in the prepaid conainters free of charge.

So, that long post was meant to say, "Yes, there is mercury in CFLs, and yes, proper disposal of them has not been talked about enough, especially in our area, but here are the answers and it is worth the small inconvenience of driving the bulbs or packaging them up in order to conserve energy and help the planet. It's the least we can do."

*casually steps off soap-box*