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As facilities seek increased energy efficiency, they often retrofit whole lighting systems by replacing spent or near-spent lamps with new, longer-lasting fluorescent lamps. While this increases efficiency, the old lamps must be properly disposed of due to their toxic components.

Due to the mercury content, most fluorescent lamps are hazardous, and therefore disposal is regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency. Landfills are increasingly intolerant of these lamps due to the amount of mercury found in the lamps and the impact the mercury has in their landfill and surrounding environment. This is of particular concern because mercury is highly toxic to the human nervous system and particularly poisonous to the kidneys.

With over 650 million fluorescent lamps disposed of each year in the United States alone, recycling of the lamps has become the recommended method of disposal. This helps protect the environment while minimizing the future liability of the “generating” facility. Fines have already been levied by the Environmental Protection Agency in excess of $250,000 per fine for improper disposal.

Facilities can be held responsible for their lamps that are later found in landfills, and may be subjected to retroactive clean-up costs under EPA regulations. Due to this risk, smaller generators of waste need to become familiar with the regulations that larger generators have been meeting for years.

Since managing spent lamps intact and packaging them in boxes can be labor intense and space consuming, many facilities seek alternatives as they try to comply with state and federal regulations. To reduce the demands on labor and space, facilities are turning to technology that crushes lamps on-site while filtering the dust and mercury vapors released.

“By crushing our lamps safely, we were able to severely cut down on required storage space that had been used when we managed the lamps intact in boxes,” said Ernie Ladich, Facilities Director of the North Broward Hospital District in Fort Lauderdale, FL. “These machines are very easy to operate and have greatly reduced our recycling costs, too.”

Once the drums are full of the crushed lamps, they are picked up and transported to recycling centers to have the mercury powder separated from the glass shards and metal end caps. The mercury is then heated through a retort process, driving the mercury from the powder to be sold off in a liquid state. The clean glass and metal end caps are then sold for reuse.

For more information, contact Air Cycle at: 800-909-9709 or visit them on the web at:

www.aircycle.com

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