Being Green

You have heard the term “being green” or “are you going green” this doesn’t apply to the color green. It’s a new way of life; one that cuts or reduces pollution, or recycles something to so has a new life. Saving and recycling aluminum cans is one way to be “green”. Changing out your old light bubs in your home to the new compact fluorescent lighting (CFL) is another way. Switching to these new CFL bulbs will save money, plus they will reduce the overall power usage. The cost of these CFL at Wal-Mart is less then a dollar since the cost is offset by the electric company. So that means the electric company will basically pay you to buy these new CLF bulbs at Wal-Mart. These new CFL bulbs are nice, they are bright, and give off a brighter color of white light then the basic light bulb. But like any electric device, these CFL bulbs do fail and just burn out. What do you do with them? Here in California, we are not supposed to toss these brunt out CFL bulbs in the trash, we are supposed to take them to a hazard waste materials center, Huh? Yep. Because these CFL contain mercury, it must be disposed of properly according to mandates by the State. But what happens to all the CFL bulbs accumulated? It costs a lot of money to remove the mercury from these CFL bulbs. I know the state of California does not have any money to fund the recycling of CFL. The only option is to crush them and send them to South America for “disposal” so it’s not our problem any more. And the best part, California stays green. There are private programs in place that will recycle fluorescent bulbs, but it is costly, since the costs must be paid upfront.