DIYbanter - View Single Post - T-12 4 ft Fluorescent Tube Disposal

Scott Lurndal

writes:
On Tue, 04 Aug 2020 15:13:21 GMT, (Scott Lurndal)
wrote:

writes:
On Mon, 03 Aug 2020 17:15:28 -0400, wrote:

TimR wrote:

On Monday, August 3, 2020 at 1:15:13 AM UTC-4, wrote:

Your Trash Pickup service can't tell you where?

I tried an experiment, wrapped one in clear mailing tape and broke it with a hammer, figuring I'd put the glass pieces in the trash.

You have to hit them surprisingly hard, and when they pop the glass ignores the tape and you spend the next half hour picking it out of the grass.

Home Depot takes back CFLs but didn't want the tubes even though they sell them but Lowes took the rest of them.

Right next to the bay where they sell new tubes, HD have a cover in
plastic with one removable end cap. Its slightly bigger in diameter
than the tube. You take off the removable end, slide the old tube in,
replace the removable cap, put it over a garbage bin, hit the cover
with a hammer, the tube shatters, take off the removable end, and
finally pour the (by now tiny) shards of class into the bin. There
seems to be a little smoke or maybe dust. You could put on a hazmat
suit and a respirator if you're a real wuss. The garbage bin empties
into a black bag which is compacted by the garbage truck together with
hundreds of other peoples' garbage and goes (guess) to a landfill in
some flyover state.

Compared to the haz mat that ends up in the trash, the tiny amount of
mercury in a F-12 is not going to make much difference.

Multiply by thousands of TxxFy bulbs and you're talking
real hazards.

Landfills are
lined these days so stuff like this doesn't leach into the ground
water.

Please don't assume this, because it is not a correct statement.

Besides, it's a violation of the law in many localities to improperly
dispose of hazardous waste.

That is far from the largest source of mercury and I am not disposing
of "Thousands" of these things.

Of course, it's all about you. How many other people live in the
country that take your advice?

It adds up.

It is more like 2 every couple of
years. I get rid of a lot more batteries and they tell us to just put
them in the trash. When I had a way of getting them to a haz mat
place, like when my wife was running a big HOA, I put them with the

As pointed out most hardware stores (ACE, HD, Lowes) will take them.