The Proper Package for Fluorescent Lamps

• By Brad Buscher, chair and CEO of VaporLok Products LLC
• Nov 19, 2009

The popularity of green is far more than a trend or an innate desire to protect waterways and wildlife. It is about what is practical. Rising energy costs and new policies have made waste unaffordable. But sometimes "green" products come with their own risks.

As a green product, fluorescent lamps are gaining popularity because they are

• four to six times more efficient,
• emit about the same amount of visible light,
• work longer, and
• save significant energy costs over incandescent lamps.

The rate of fluorescent use also is expected to increase when manufacturing of incandescent lamps (recognized by Congress as wasteful in 2007 energy legislation) winds down in 2013.

But as businesses embrace fluorescent technology, they must be aware that these lamps have to be disposed of properly. A broken compact fluorescent lamp (CFL) contains a small amount of mercury, but the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency provides guidelines for its disposal. One broken 48-inch fluorescent lamp in a small room or vehicle can release enough mercury vapor to exceed the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) permissible exposure levels (PEL) of 0.1 mg/m3 (8-hr time-weighted average). To protect people and the environment from the risks of mercury vapor released by broken lamps, proper vapor-resistant packaging should be utilized. However, many packages marketed for fluorescent lamp transport do not provide the necessary levels of protection.

The Handling Risks

Broken lamps also pose a significant occupational health risk to those involved in their storage, transport and disposal and a legal hazard for any businesses that do not adhere to agency stipulations. Burned out or broken, many states require that the lamps be recycled. EPA encourages lamp recycling by allowing common carrier shipment to recycling facilities, but the agency also says that packaging should be designed to protect against breakage. Federal laws, however, do not explicitly address mercury vapor release and packaging.

Many business professionals and consumers think the benefits of fluorescent lamps far outweigh the risks, and the solution seems simple as recycling of many materials ─ paper and plastics to electronic devices — has been commonplace for years. But the very risks that make fluorescent lamp recycling crucial also make proper recycling difficult. Proper packaging not only protects against lamp breakage but also, in case breakage does occur, contains mercury vapor within acceptable levels, as determined by state and federal regulations. As a recent study found, not all current packaging options meet these requirements.

Package Protection

In a fluorescent lamp packaging study conducted by the University of Minnesota School of Public Health, Division of Environmental Health Sciences, results indicate that, if fluorescent lamps contained within various package designs broke, just one out of the five packaging configurations tested minimized mercury vapor enough to satisfy workplace exposure regulations.

Upon breaking, the fluorescent lamps released mercury vapor concentrations that could exceed PELs when personnel are working with or near broken lamps. This is an especially significant threat when multiple lamps are stored or shipped in bulk, as they are when sent to recycling facilities. So despite the best intentions of many recyclers, many lamps break during transit. These broken lamps can expose personnel to dangerous levels of mercury vapor.

In the study, four commercially available packages did not sufficiently minimize exposure levels. They were:

• a single cardboard box;
• a single box with a thin, unsealed plastic liner;
• a single box containing a thicker, tape-sealed plastic bag; and
• double box with a thicker, tape-sealed plastic bag.

When fluorescent lamps contained within the single cardboard box broke, mercury vapor concentrations in the test chamber were 10 times higher than the 0.1 mg/m³ limit.

However, a double box featuring a patent-pending, proprietary vapor-resistant zip-closure bag placed between the two boxes reduced mercury vapor concentrations by 99.7 percent, making the exposure level well within OSHA and many stricter state exposure limits.

Recycling Rules Compliance

Fluorescent lamps typically are contained in bulk or in pre-paid shipping recycling boxes and transported to the recycling facility via truck.

The lamps are then crushed with the mercury vapor being safely exhausted and the resultant mercury extracted and reused. The remaining debris is then placed in 55-gallon drums and sent to a retort facility where they are heated to high temperatures to eliminate any remaining mercury. Resultant glass and aluminum can then be further recycled and reused.

The packaging concerns are problematic, but another alarming statistic is the number of fluorescent bulbs that are not being recycled. Despite the environmental, health and legal risks associated with lack of compliance, some consumers and businesses continue to discard fluorescent lamps improperly (see related story). EPA estimates that over 670 million mercury-containing lamps are discarded annually in the United States. That number is expected to increase as CFLs — more than 300 million are sold annually — grow in popularity among consumers.

Actual recycle rates are more difficult to gauge, because the rules governing their recycling and/or disposal do not provide for any tracking mechanism. In 2004, the Association of Lighting and Mercury Recyclers polled its membership in an attempt to estimate the total lamps recycled against EPA’s estimate of lamps discarded.

The membership at that time estimated a recycling rate of 20 to 25 percent, with the remaining percentage landfilled. Recycling volumes have grown annually, but not at the same rate of increased sales, when compact fluorescent lamps are factored into the volume. Without a mechanism for tracking the volume of lamps discarded, true recycling rates are unobtainable; therefore, it is impossible to know the risk of mercury vapor exposure.

With no universally enforced packaging standards to protect handlers of fluorescent lamps, manufacturers, transporters, retailers, consumers, and recyclers risk exposure to mercury vapor. Stricter regulations may follow but until then, the best practice is to be proactive. Recycling fluorescent lamps properly by using a proven packaging design to ensure the safety of those who may come into contact with fluorescent lamps — while still harnessing the energy- and cost-efficiency benefits this lighting provides.

Learn more about the regulations in your state, as well as other useful mercury related information, at http://www.vaporlokproducts.com/Regulations.htm.