In article , Marissa Payton wrote:

What a crazy idea, producing electricity from plants that release
Mercury!! Mercury from thermometers, CFLs, old thermostat switches, etc.
goes into the environment in the form of landfill leachate or incinerator
releases. That's assuming the bulbs are not broken first, including
dropped on your kitchen floor.

In the USA, power plants produce mercury emissions if they burn coal. A
lot of the USA's electricity comes from burning coal. Average USA coal
has a mercury content high enough for replacement of incandescents with
CFLs to actually decrease the amount of mercury going into the
environment.

Keep in mind that a CFL has about 1% or less as much mercury as a
mercury fever thermometer, and around a thousandth or two of the mercury
of a mercury thermostat switch.

- Don Klipstein )