People have talked about how toxic Mercury is and how one should not just dispose items that contain Mercury to trash cans. Why? Because Mercury wastes can infiltrate into the soils and contaminate the ground water systems. The mere thought of that possibility should have you think twice about throwing your CFLs to the trash cans.
I used to just treat the CFLs like any other trash, but after learning that Mercury is hazardous to the environment, I stopped doing that. Nowadays, I carefully put the CFLs that went bad to a designated box. You don’t want to throw them, ‘cause you don’t want to inhale Mercury vapor should you break the CFLs. My box is getting rather full already. To be honest, I don't even know where to throw them. I have talked to a few people, and they don't know either. When they are asked how they deal with dead CFLs, they said they just put them in the traditional thrash cans. That is not good, people!
Exactly how toxic is Mercury? A recent news announcement on global Mercury ban from the United Nations has the following in their article:
“UNEP noted that mercury and its various compounds have a range of serious health impacts, including brain and neurological damage especially among the young. Others include kidney damage and damage to the digestive system. Victims can suffer memory loss and language impairment alongside many other well documented problems.”
To read the full article, here is the link
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