P.O.O.P
  • Home
  • Environmental tips: Cleaning up after painting
  • Saving water
  • Building a sustainable home
  • Making your home eco-friendly
  • Simple ways to cut waste
  • Stop pollution
  • Transport-Cleaning up our act
  • What can be recycled?
  • Eco-bulb disposal
  • Trash or Treasure?
  • Contact Us
  • P.O.O.P merchandise
  • Packaging failures

Picture
Eco-Bulb Disposal

They’re more efficient, supposedly longer lasting and despite being slightly ugly, are meant to help save the planet. That is until it comes time to dispose of the eco-friendly light bulb. If not recycled correctly, environmental experts say the new Eco-bulb could be a hazard to our health.

The Eco-bulb and fluorescent tubes contain mercury vapour which when released, goes into the soil or the atmosphere. New Zealand imports more than five million of these fluorescent bulbs every year and a number of them are finding their way to landfill through poor disposal. Efficient and safe disposal of fluorescent tubes and Eco-bulbs should be sought out.
When fluorescent tubes, light bulbs, Eco-bulbs or neon lighting is improperly disposed of it can leach out mercury which enters the soil and water.

The mercury converts to methylmercury, hazardous to fish, birds and humans. Cell phones are also a lethal reply if sent to landfill.

E-waste from computers are being recycled.  Monitors, hard drives and keyboards have been broken down into their component parts for recycling and export. Rare metals in the computers make recycling a viable option and will only become more so.


Proudly powered by Weebly