So following up on my post: Demystifying CFL and Mercury Poisoning, now you know that CFL and fluorescent lightings contain a small traces of mercury, it is not safe to just discard CFLs and fluorescent lighting in your garbage. Mercury after all, is still a toxic chemical.
Mercury Droplets by TheProgrammerAnalyst on Flickr
To recycle these lights, you need to bring them to facilities that will accept them.
Here is a list in San Mateo County:
- Brisbane Ace Hardware, 1 Vistacion Ave., Brisbane
- Lumiere, 1405 Broadway, Burlingame
- Service Lighting, 2975 Junipero Serra, Daly City
- IKEA, 1700 East Bayshore Rd., East Palo Alto
- Half Moon Bay Electric, 429 Main Street, Half Moon Bay
- All Home Depot Stores
- Ocean Shore Hardware, 111 Main St., Half Moon Bay
- Reclaim: Healthy Green Home, 855 Santa Cruz Ave., Menlo Park
- Millbrae Ace Lumber Company, 200 El Camino Real, Millbrae
- Halogens, 216 Broadway, Millbrae
- Linda Mar Ace Hardware, 560 San Pedro Ave., Pacifica
- Portola Valley Hardware, 112 Portola Rd., Portola Valley
- Eichen’s Lighting, 580 El Camino Real, San Bruno
- Niko Lighting, 1148 San Carlos Ave., San Carlos
- Wisnom’s Hardware, 545 First Ave., San Mateo
- Carlmont Ace Hardware, 1029 Alameda De Las Pulgas, Belmont
You can also call San Mateo County’s Household Hazardous Waste Program for recycling options at 650-372-6200. Or find out more information about disgarding and disposing of other household hazardous waste at www.smhealth.org/hhw
For San Francisco, go to http://www.sfenvironment.org/index.html and use their ecofinder for anything hazardous.
Here is some info on mercury via Wikipedia:
Mercury was known to the ancient Chinese and Hindus, and was found in Egyptian tombs that date from 1500 BC.[citation needed] In China, India and Tibet, mercury use was thought to prolong life, heal fractures, and maintain generally good health. China’s first emperor, Qin Shi Huang Di — said to have been buried in a tomb that contained rivers of flowing mercury, representative of the rivers of China — was driven insane and killed by mercury pills intended to give him eternal life. The ancient Greeks used mercury in ointments and the Romans used it in cosmetics. By 500 BC mercury was used to make amalgams with other metals. The Indian word for alchemy is Rasavātam which means ‘the way of mercury’. Alchemists often thought of mercury as the First Matter from which all metals were formed. Different metals could be produced by varying the quality and quantity of sulfur contained within the mercury. An ability to transform mercury into any metal resulted from the essentially mercurial quality of all metals. The purest of these was gold, and mercury was required for the transmutation of base (or impure) metals into gold as was the goal of many alchemists.
Hg is the modern chemical symbol for mercury. It comes from hydrargyrum, a Latinized form of the Greek word `Υδραργυρος (hydrargyros), which is a compound word meaning ‘water’ and ’silver’ — since it is liquid, like water, and yet has a silvery metallic sheen. The element was named after the Roman god Mercury, known for speed and mobility. It is associated with the planet Mercury. The astrological symbol for the planet is also one of the alchemical symbols for the metal (above left). Mercury is the only metal for which the alchemical planetary name became the common name.