Binmen In Britian Refuse To Pick Up CFL Bulbs

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   lady_love158posted 13 years ago

   http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article … inmen.html
   
   Anyone could see this coming except of course big government! They pass a law to solve one problem and end up creating an even bigger problem which will no doubt require another legislative solution and so the cycle continues. Bit by bit your freedom is eroded away by well intentioned government that believes it is better equiped to make decisions regarding your life!

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      John Holdenposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      Scaremongering!
      
      "A spokesman said last night: ‘If a low-energy lightbulb breaks, the mercury contained in it does not pose a health risk to anyone exposed.’"

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         ryankettposted 13 years agoin reply to this

         It is the Daily Mail, the day that they stop scaremongering is the day that you know there is actually something seriously wrong with society.
         
         Daily Mail readers live in a constant bubble of paranoia, too scared to leave their homes after 7pm as a result of their perception of the outside world being one in which 95% of the country is evil.
         
         They are particularly scared of anybody under 25, anybody who isn't purely white and anybody wearing a jumper which happens to have a hood. They also hate the poor, just because they believe that it is still fashionable to do so.

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            John Holdenposted 13 years agoin reply to this

            More commonly known as the Daily Wail.

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               ryankettposted 13 years agoin reply to this

               Being from the UK, you can probably imagine the person making that statement above too. It made me chuckle, just because I have a vision of a Victor Meldrew type old man writing it.

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               Sufidreamerposted 13 years agoin reply to this

               ...or the Daily Heil or the Daily Fail. It is so bad that even my mum won't read it!
               
               I suppose that the binmen will now be queueing at the dentists, demanding that their fillings are removed. They should also stop eating tuna.
               
               When I worked on the bin rounds, there were far nastier things to worry about.

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         lady_love158posted 13 years agoin reply to this

         Yeah and the Japanese Electric Power Company says you don't have to witty about radiation. Mercury is highly toxic would you volunteer to breath in the dust?

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            John Holdenposted 13 years agoin reply to this

            No dust, just a very small amount of vapour, exposed in the open air and many feet away from the operatives. Certainly much less than you would be exposed to if you happened to stand down wind of a crematorium and much less than exposure to mercury batteries!
            And certainly much less than your dentist will have been exposed to!
            
            Like I said, scaremongering.

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               lady_love158posted 13 years agoin reply to this

               Really? Is the EPA scare mongering too?
               
               http://epa.gov/cfl/cflcleanup-detailed.html

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                  John Holdenposted 13 years agoin reply to this

                  Yes!
                  
                  By the way, just to remind you, your subject was binmen. You know, men who go around all day in the open air collecting large bins with lids on that they wheel to the collection lorry where the bins are hoisted about eight feet into the air, tipped and then lids opened and contents discharged!
                  The binmen will rarely be aware of any content of the bin.
                  
                  Scaremongering.

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            CHRIS57posted 13 years agoin reply to this

            Mercury?
            If you think Fukushima, you have to put away with nuclear power plants.
            Then your are stuck with fossile and coal power plants.
            Thing is: for every ton of coal you burn for producing extra electricity for regular bulbs, there is some mercury emitted.
            So within some 4 to 5 years, more mercury is produced by burning fossile fuels than is contained in a CFL bulb. The mercury balance gets in favour of the CFL.
            But of cause you can stick with nuclear power plants, they don´t produce mercury. There are only other minor environmental hazards with nukes, aren´t there?
            Better use less energy and go for green - helps all.

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         SimeyCposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         Correct - a single lightbulb doesn't pose any serious risk. These lightbulbs should be properly recycled - and that's where the problem lies - most people do not recycle these and place them in regular garbage.
         
         1 lightbulb with trace elements of mercury = no problem.
         1,000,000 lightbulbs with trace elements of mercury - environmental problem in landfills.
         
         Rather than scaremongering - the daily mail could simply have reinforced the need to recycle...

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      SimeyCposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      I actually wrote a hub about the dangers of the mercury in these bulbs a long time ago. This whole 'global warming' fiasco (whether it is true or not) has created a whole new way of corporations to make a lot of money with 'green' initiatives.
      
      Al Gore didn't help the fact when he produced his documentary - real science and debate, and real solutions have been forgotten in the quest to cash in on 'green'.
      
      I applaud governments trying to do something about the problems - but they need to follow through and get proper 'objective' commentary from real experts - not experts who just happen to want a multi-million dollar grant!
      
      It makes me sooooo mad!

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   ryankettposted 13 years ago

   I love Londoners, they are unintentionally funny in their own up-their-own-arse miserable f*ck way.....
   
   "Ironic - in the name of saving the world from climate change to help the nice polar bears we are now forced to buy only light bulbs that need a haz mat team in full on suits to dispose of them.... genius which enviro numbnuts come up with this?"
   
   
   
   That made me chuckle, in that I could imagine his whiney miserable Cockney face whilst he muttered that through gritted teeth. He is right though.

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   sunforgedposted 13 years ago

   Those mercury containing bulbs are supposed to be properly recycled, I wouldnt pick them up in regular trash either and you shouldnt want them too.
   
   Its not just possible exposure to the "binmen" if a bulb breaks but also where that bulb may end up and how it will be processed in the end in a traditional facility.
   
   CFL's are stupid. LED's last 10 times as long and contain no mercury. Buyers just balk at a more expensive upfront cost and lose out on the healthier and cheaper option

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      Sufidreamerposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      I would love to see more LED bulbs - I have a couple of torches with them and the battery life is astonishing.
      
      We use the long-life bulbs because they make sense for us - because of power surges, normal bulbs only last a couple of weeks, whereas the long life bulbs endure for many years. I will happily start investing in LEDs when they become easier to find
      
      RE Binmen: I worked as a binman, and I was far more concerned about used condoms, used sanitary products, nappies/diapers, used syringes, mould spores, rat droppings, rat urine, dangerous microbes, asbestos, broken glass, household cleaners...

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         waynetposted 13 years agoin reply to this

         Lol! used to work as a street cleaner and worried about the same and also members of the public too as they were unpredictable!

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            Sufidreamerposted 13 years agoin reply to this

            Filthy jobs must be rite of passage into manhood for Northerners.
            
            That is why my response to the soft southern binmen is: Wear a mask if you are that bothered.
            
            SF: I can't use Amazon.com but I will have a look at Amazon.co.uk. 
            
            One of my friends owns a lighting store, so I might ask him if he has any plans to stock them.

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         sunforgedposted 13 years agoin reply to this

         LED bulbs in the edison style are available on amazon for under $20 a piece. Specialty suppliers and bought in bulk are much cheaper than even that.
         
         last quote I read at average us electrical  prices - a led bulb can be left on 12 hours a day for the year for a total average cost of .80- 1.60 in utility cost

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            John Holdenposted 13 years agoin reply to this

            Yes but longlife bulbs are about the same cost or even cheaper than incandescent here in the UK.
            For $20 (£13) I could fit my home out with CFLs and run them for the best part of a year.

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               sunforgedposted 13 years agoin reply to this

               led = 10 years
               
               but i am surpised that cfl's are so cheap, i still have some in my house and they were at best 3 for $10 - and ran $3 to $6 a piece if purchased individually at a drug or grocery store

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                  John Holdenposted 13 years agoin reply to this

                  Last I bought were three for a pound ($1.60)

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                  ryankettposted 13 years agoin reply to this

                  They are subsidized by our government, it's another of those EU things.
                  
                  I bought mine for 20p each (30 cents), they were even Phillips, no cheapies. They are sold for less than they cost to manufacturer. Insulation (as in the stuff that you put in the loft) currently costs about £3 for a 5000 x 400mm roll. That is subsidized too.
                  
                  They are effectively buying it for us, using our tax money, in order to satisfy the EU.
                  
                  The supermarkets and DIY stores are drop off points for the governments hauls of free bulbs, 262 million bulbs so far, they have far more than needed too.
                  
                  The 20p charge, or 33p charge in John's case, is the retailers charge for distributing our taxpayer funded bulbs.
                  
                  There is a sinister twist though, the old bulbs used to give off more heat. Using the new bulbs results in your central heating having to work harder, as a result more gas is used by most homeowners. I'm not sure about the US but the extra electricity used for the old bulbs is worth less than the extra gas used to compensate for heat loss.
                  
                  Who therefore offers to post bulbs to their customers for free? The energy companies of course, such as British Gas. They send us our "free bulbs" which we paid for with our taxes, the postage cost of around £4.00 ($6) per six bulbs being paid for out of the revenues from our gas bills, and then to thank them for the sh*t bulbs that we paid for our gas bills rise so that we can continue paying for those 6 free bulbs for the rest of our lives (more expensive than electricity) and our electricity bills fall very slightly.
                  
                  There are people hoarding the old bulbs, which will soon be illegal in this country, and then the retailers can charge what the hell they like for our "free bulbs", which we have already paid for, because we don't have any choice but to buy them.
                  
                  Yet another legacy of EU fail, a calamity. Let's all save polar bears by using more gas. I know, why don't we make the energy corps even richer? Great idea! The traditional yearly profit increase hasn't been anywhere near enough!
                  
                  These bulbs were said to last 7 years. I replaced all of my bulbs four months ago. Two of them are dead already.
                  
                  I was one of those who stocked up on the 'old' bulbs, I will use one for the bedroom, fuck the polar bears, there is room for them in Canada. I am an environmentalist in most cases, but not whilst squinting at a book because my lights don't shine enough. I don't drive, thus I am allowed some dispensation; I can use old light bulbs and have absolutely no worries about my carbon footprint when applied relatively.
                  
                  I can't moan about the cheap loft insulation though, maybe I will get some to offset my rising heating requirements.

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      SimeyCposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Exactly - if properly recycled then there will be no problem - the problem is most people don't realise they should recycle these bulbs. One bulb isn't dangerous - but when you place a million bulbs in a landfill - that's heck of a lot of mercury.

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   sunforgedposted 13 years ago

   to be critical the EPA doesnt care about binmen . We have sanitation workers and they dont always just collect wheeled bins, they carry bags and loose debris here.

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      ryankettposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      Not all rubbish in the UK is in 'wheely bins' as they are called, many still just have bags. Although most of us do have wheely bins now. They look hideous on our streets though, we tend to do things small here, so there wasn't enough room on our typical terraced streets. Many of us have two wheely bins, one for recyclables and one for non-recyclables. They can be an eyesore.

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   Nell Roseposted 13 years ago

   On the same track but slightly different train so to speak, I think the stupidest thing I have ever heard is the fact that, Becotide, an asthma inhaler, which I use, had to have its old nice tasting propellant taken out and replaced with ethanol because they didn't want to get it in the atmosphere and cause global warming! Now, I don't know about you, but I would love to know how on earth it was going to get in the atmosphere! you place your mouth around it and squirt the liquid in the back of the throat! at no time does it come out of the sides! so, are you trying to tell me that if I happen to,er, well, pass anything from any orifice, it will be different when it goes through my body? so now I am stuck with pure alcohol burning my mouth every time I have a puff, and trust me it burns, and the main thing is that I feel like my mouth is the aftermath of a great party the night before, you know the one, inside of a cows a.....e! without the fun! who's idea was that? Duh!

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      sunforgedposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      you assume that every cartridge is used until empty before disposal

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         Nell Roseposted 13 years agoin reply to this

         I do use every one up, but even if I didn't how tiny is that? I just think that maybe if people wanted to save the planet then they would just stop cutting the trees down. That's all they need to do

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            sunforgedposted 13 years agoin reply to this

            that would be great .. but im referring to cartridges that could be damaged in transport, expire? accident at manafacturings facilities etc etc. there is much more than just you; the responsible end user, to consider.

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   CMHypnoposted 13 years ago

   http://www.hpa.org.uk/webw/HPAweb&H … 8313435037
   
   The UK's Health Protection Agency's advice on CFL and how to dispose of broken bulbs safely. I would be on the side of anything containing mercury being disposed of in a way that ensures that the mercury cannot leak into the environment.
   
   One annoying aspect of them is that I have a lamp that you can turn on and off by touching, and these new lightbulbs just do not work in it

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