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Campaign Archive: (Feb 05 to present)
Campaign Goals: 1. Create a deadline for action Ban the sale of incandescents by specific dates Ban 60W + 100W incandescents first (bayonet + screw) Ban other incandescent designs later 2. Remove the price advantage of incandescents Increase the cost of incandescent light bulbs Reduce the sales tax (VAT) on CFLs from 17.5% to 5% 3. Help the poor Help the poor to replace their incandescents Help the poor to save money on their energy bills 4. Encourage responsible recycling Encourage the responsible recycling of CFLs Encourage fair + adequate funding for recycling Encourage discussions amongst recycling stakeholders 5. Encourage + strengthen supporting legislation Include light bulbs in the EU's Eco Directive Explain the pros + cons of the EU's RoHS Directive 6. Propose appriopriate exemptions Make the case for appropriate medical and specialist exemptions 7. Encourage continued innovation Propose that technology neutral "watts per lumen" criteria should be included in ban legislation Propose "watts per lumen per m2" as further criteria Highlight promising technologies as they emerge 8. Encourage energy efficiency and conservation Explain the benefits of greater energy efficiency Explain the benefits of turning things off Accelerate the uptake of available technologies 9. Use LEDs to set energy performance standards LEDs offer a 90% energy saving CFLs offer a 65-80% energy saving High efficiency incandescents offer a 25% saving Incandescents offer 0% energy saving Banning incandescent light bulbs would... Save 2 to 5 Million tonnes of CO2 per year in the UK Save 23 to 53 Million tonnes of CO2 per year in the EU Global Energy Use: Thanks to...OilPrice.com Links: BBC "Green Room" 3 Feb 06 Light bulbs: Not such a bright idea Comments BBC "Green Room" 21 April 06 Shedding light on call to ban bulb Comments BBC "Green Room" 20 Oct 06 Where have all the leaders gone? Comments BBC article 29 Jun 06 Lighting the key to energy saving IEA : Lights Labour Lost report BBC article 2 Nov 06 Bulbs must be efficient by 2009 BBC "Green Room" 19 Jan 07 The need for ambition + imagination Stern Review: Summary Guardian article 1 Feb 07 Should I replace incandescents now? Worldwatch: Effects of WEEE Directive BBC article 31 Jan 07 Plan to ban light bulbs... in California Nine MSN article 20 Feb 07 Plan to ban light bulbs... in Australia BBC article 20 Feb 07 Australia pulls plug on old bulbs Courier Mail article 21 Feb 07 See the light Turnbull EurActiv article 21 Feb 07 How many EU members does it take to change a light bulb? Guardian article 22 Feb 07 Should we ban these bulbs? Scotsman article 24 Feb 07 How many light bulbs does it take to change the world? Daily Mail article 10 Mar 07 EU switches off our old light bulbs BBC "Green Room" 16 July 07 Sex sells, but at what cost? The Guardian article 27 Sept 07 UK to phase out 150W, 100W + 60W bulbs The Guardian article 27 Sept 07 Ban The Bulb? International Light Bulb Campaigns 18 Seconds (US) Greenpeace India : BTB petition (India) www.banthebulb.co.uk (UK: unaffiliated) Campaigns One Watt Initiative (IEA) One Billion Bulbs (US) Big Green Switch (UK) Eco Portal Eco Earth Info (US) References Homestayfinder: How CFLs work MPs' Letters: EU light bulb rules Wikipedia: Ozone Depletion EU: Kyoto Protocol Lighting Industry Federation >LIF: Lamp Guide 2001 pdf UK Climate Change Programme >UK CCP: Review pdf UK Market Transformation Programme ECCP Report 2001 pdf European Lamp Companies Federation DTI: WEEE Directive Energy Saving Trust GE: Soft White Dimmable CFLs Cubans + Jamaicans hand out free CFLs ELCFED FAQs Lighting Advice Energy Saving Trust Lighting Bulb ratings Lighting choices Low energy fittings Save Your 20% Customer Utility Services Light bulb suppliers lightbulbs.co.uk Just LED Direct Trade Supplies Light Rabbit Light Rabbit : Commercial AVR LED Track Lighting Bulb Buddy Energy Bulb Synergy Lighting USA (USA) Express Light Bulbs LED Light Bulbs LED Lighting Supplier eco LED Light E-Leds EcoPal (Ireland) LED Lights LED Tape Eco St LED Eco Lights Light Bulb Planet Green Led LineLite First Light Direct Lamps On Line UltraLEDS (UK) LiteBulbs Bright Green Technology (signs) Eco Friendly Light Bulbs Go Green Lights (UK) Energy Saving World (UK) Light Bulbs Direct (UK) Better Generation (UK) Efficient Light (UK) Ultima (UK) Megaman (UK) Amazon.Com (US) The Bulbman (US) LED Online [LEDs] (UK) OptoSource [LEDs] (UK) CyberLux [LEDs] (US) Androv Medical (UK) BestBulb (UK) The Light Bulb (UK) Solar Solar Power Centre (UK) Intelligent Energy Solutions (UK) Solar Insiders (UK) Solar Gadget Store (UK) Select Solar Panels (UK) Energy Saving Advice Conserve Energy (UK) Intelligent Energy Solutions (UK) Solar Security Solar Security Solutions (UK) Energy Company Advice Good Energy Shop (UK) Home Energy Generation / Storage Cyber Energy (UK) Low carbon technology sites The Solar Centre (UK) Price comparison sites Business Electricity Prices (UK) Business Gas Prices (UK) USwitch: Business Energy (UK) Home Advisory Service (UK) UK Power (UK) Business Gas (UK) Business Electricity (UK) Solar Price Comparison Services Talk Solar Panels (UK) Talk Solar Boilers (UK) Solar Quote Provider (UK) Solar Lighting Lux Outdoor Ligting (UK) The Eco Experts (UK) http://www.theecoexperts.co.uk Light bulb history An overview 1809 Humphrey Davy (Arc lamp) 1820 Warren De la Rue (vacuum + wire) 1879 Edison and Swan (carbon + cotton) 1880 Edison (carbon + bamboo) 1898 Karl Auer (osmium) 1903 Siemens/Halske (tantalum) 1906 to 10 GEC/William Coolidge (tungsten) Fluorescent light and lamp history 1857 Becquerel (fluorescence) 1901 Cooper Hewitt (mercury vapour lamp) 1934 Germer (high pressure lamp) 1970s Anderson + Hollister (electrodeless) 1976 Edward Hammer (spiral lamp) Mercury + Fluorescent Lights Efficiency Vermont Michigan Dept. of Env. Quality Energy Efficiency Advice EU Energy Label Refrigeration Laundry Dishwashers Boilers Insulation + Windows Find recommended products (UK) Generate your own energy General advice Solar Photovoltaics Solar water heating Heat pumps Small scale wind Small scale hydro Biomass Press coverage The Guardian 7 Dec 05 BBC News Online 'Green Room' 3 Feb 06 BBC Radio 4 'Broadcasting House' 5 Feb 06 Austrian Broadcasting Corp. 7 Feb 06 BBC Radio Wales 8 Feb 06 BBC News Online 8 Feb 06 The Hindustan Times editorial The Guardian "Campaign O.T.W. " 21 Feb 06 BBC Radio Essex 22 Feb 06 Interesting energy ideas... Option 10 (UK) Light Up The World (Can) TVEC.org (UK) Downshifting Path (UK) Cent. for Alt. Tech. (Wales) Patio Heaters Are Evil (UK) NGOs Friends of the Earth Greenpeace International Natural Resources Defense Council New Economics Foundation WWF Renewable Energy Businesses Select Solar Solar Century Climate Change Carbon Trust Climate Stability 2005 DEFRA Hadley Centre IPCC Met Office Pew Centre Tyndall Centre UK Energy Research Centre UNFCCC Reports National Audit Office > report Environmental Blogs Alternative Energy Blog Dangerousmeta! Earth Blog Earth Info Energy: Action Envirotech George Monbiot Greenpeace Weblog Gristmill Mark Lynas Meta Efficient One Change Real Climate Rebecca Blood Sierra Club Scoop World Changing Ethical Expert © matt prescott
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Thursday, May 17, 2012Recycling Manifesto : How to Recycle 100% of CFLs
Why the recycling of all used CFLs is necessary
The banning of domestic incandescent light bulbs has
resulted in more energy efficient compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) being used.
This is great in terms of reducing energy use, carbon
emissions and bills but has also created a new stream of waste, which needs to
be responsibly and reliably recycled.
Each CFL contains between 1mg and 5mg of mercury. Mercury
is a toxic substance and always needs to be disposed of safely.
At present, no waste system capable of recycling 100% of
CFLs, or other hazardous household waste, has been created anywhere in the world and this situation needs to change before
millions of used CFLs start entering the waste system at the end of their 4 – 6 year useful
lives.
During the development of this Recycling Manifesto, Ban The Bulb has researched the countries that have been most successful at recycling
domestic compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) and explored how Sweden manages to
recycle 75% of domestic CFLs and 90% of commercial fluorescent lighting.
Sweden possesses a relatively small and highly
organised population and has developed a single, centrally organised recycling
system, administered by El-Kretsen, which
reaches into every local community via approximately 1000 standardised
collection sites.
The Netherlands also uses 1 organisation to
organise its recycling (http://www.wecycle.nl), Ireland uses 2 organisations and
France uses 1 system for CFLs and a total of 4 systems for all electrical waste
(referred to as WEEE or e-waste in the industry).
By contrast, the UK uses approximately 40 different
recycling schemes to recycle CFLs, and other electrical “WEEE” waste.
The UK’s hugely fragmented and bureaucratic approach to
recycling imposes heavy organisational and financial costs and is a massive
barrier to cost effective, efficient and simple recycling.
Recommendation 1
Unify and standardise
the system for recycling CFLs.
The UK, and EU, must do more to ensure that it is cheap, simple and easy to recycle all CFLs, e-waste and hazardous domestic waste.
Governments need to show leadership by simplifying and standardising the processes associated with recycling CFLs, other e-waste, batteries
and cables under WEEE and similar legislation.
National recycling schemes should be placed under the
control of umbrella bodies, which make the collection and recycling of 100% of
waste their primary goals.
Recommendation 2
Align the interests
of CFL collectors and recyclers.
The interests of collectors and recyclers need to become
better aligned.
Under the current WEEE laws, waste collectors are able
charge ransom prices to the manufacturers that are forced to comply with the
legislation, which requires them to fund a proportion of recycling exactly
proportionate to their sales.
In the UK, DEFRA’s Red Tape Challenge could play a crucially
important role in this process by fairly balancing the needs of different
markets participants and ensuring positive outcomes, which work in the
interests of society and the environment.
We need a new system, which is more focused on achieving and
rewarding high levels of CFL collection AND recycling.
Recommendation 3
Create a closed loop
for mercury supply and demand.
A closed loop system would help to ensure that mercury is always
recycled and re-used, rather than thrown away or replaced.
The efficiency of the system would be further assisted if
manufacturers were given access to recycled mercury and other materials, via
open and transparent markets, and thereby incentivised to support waste
reduction, collection and recycling.
Recommendation 4
Ban the use of new mercury.
A large amount of toxic mercury waste already exists, but
the mercury contained by old televisions and other used household products is
not always recycled.
Although the export of mercury from the EU is due to be
banned, the Ban The Bulb campaign feels that the use of new (virgin) mercury
within the EU also needs to be banned.
This would create a self-sustaining and cheap market for
used mercury and reduce the amount of toxic waste being dumped in landfill.
Recommendation 5
Encourage investment
with long-term contracts.
The Swedes issue 3 + 2 years recycling contracts (i.e. 5
years in duration), which encourage investment in simple, mechanical crushers
and more complex and costly separators.
By comparison, recycling contracts in the UK tend to be
renewed on an annual basis and this makes it less attractive to invest in highly
quality recycling equipment and the processes needed to extract re-useable
components and contaminants.
If we want recycling to improve we need to encourage
investment and to extend the contracts offered in return for manufacturers,
collectors and recyclers meeting tough performance criteria.
Recommendation 6
Develop collection
boxes that separate and store different types of e-waste.
Most households will only ever generate small quantities of
used CFLs or e-waste over months or even years.
It is never going to be economic to collect such small
quantities of low-value waste, so new collections systems, in terms of
container standards and collection regimes, are going to be required.
Mixing up different forms of waste increases handling costs
and in the case of CFLs increases the risk of breakages and the accidental contamination of non-hazardous waste with hazardous waste.
One solution might be to encourage individual householders
to collect several types of small e-waste at the same time using a compact,
stackable box with different compartments.
In the Netherlands, a product called Jekko has come the
closest to solving this set of problems.
Recommendation 7
Keep CFLs clean, dry
and safe until collection.
CFLs need to be kept dry in order to prevent fluorescent
powders sticking, mercury leaching away and/or contaminating other materials.
This might sound obvious and simple, but traditional systems
are not very good at guaranteeing waste will stay clean, dry or safe from
breakages and existing standards and norms cannot simply be applied to CFLs.
From the outset, the next generation of collection boxes
should factor in keeping waste clean, dry and safe from the home through to
recycling.
Recommendation 8
Team up with others.
Many people and organisations are keen to improve the quality
of the users’ recycling experience and to increase the rates of recycling in
several neglected categories of waste.
Groups supporting the recycling of CFLs, other small WEEE, batteries,
cables, printer cartridges and chemicals need to explore ways of working
together and tackling shared problems.
Recommendation 9
Innovate and Compete.
The answers to some of the problems facing CFL recycling
cannot be guessed and innovative trials and approaches will be necessary if
solutions are to be found.
As guiding principles those designing new solutions should aim
(i) to create open and transparent relationships between all parties and
(ii) to make
decisions based on whether or not they will increase and/or improve recycling.
Examples of solutions worth exploring include creating
currencies or certificates which only reward successful collection AND
recycling.
At the moment valuable certificates are only created when
waste is collected and not when it is recycled.
Both steps are crucial and need to be rewarded.
Field trials also need to incorporate the concerns of all
stakeholders and to do so in ways that reward success.
Competitions could be used to identify practical solutions,
such as the Jekko, and to award national and/or long-term contracts.
Recommendation 10
Standardise and Scale
Up Success.
Best practice needs be proactively shared and rapidly scaled
up.
In particular, the UK needs to examine the factors that have allowed Sweden and the Netherlands to succeed, and to be open to supporting new ideas
and approaches.
This may mean creating supportive legislation, unlocking
investment and adopting new working practices.
It is likely that those interested in the defending the
dysfunctional status quo will also need to be tackled, made to compete for
their existing roles and forced to dramatically improve their performance.
Conclusions
The recycling of CFLs, e-waste and other hazardous waste in
the UK is a mess and needs to be sorted out.
By default, too much waste is being disposed
of irresponsibly, via landfill, and it remains much too difficult for consumers to do the right
thing via the dysfunctional and over-complicated recycling system, which they
are currently expected to use.
At every step, care needs to be taken to ensure that the
needs of manufacturers, retailers, consumers, collectors and recyclers are
considered but that no one is allowed to cheat, ransom or otherwise undermine
the market for recycled waste.
This will require the creation of clear, simple and fair rules
that are focused on the goal of recycling 100% of waste and backed up by efficient
and effective enforcement by the relevant government agencies.
At present large amounts of e-waste are being sent to normal
landfill sites in the UK, via general rubbish, or even to Africa for re-use and India for unsafe disposal.
Renewed efforts need to go into ensuring that all CFLs, other
e-waste and hazardous waste can always be safely and efficiently disposed of
properly in the UK and elsewhere.
This means making it easier for well-intentioned consumers
to do the right thing and harder for bad practice to go unchallenged.
The present system has evolved due to a lack of focus on the
goal of recycling 100% of e-waste, such as CFLs, and a tendency to build ever
more complicated and bureaucratic systems.
The Swedes and the Dutch have made their life a lot easier
by showing great leadership and creating unified and standardised systems which
are much more focused on achieving their primary goals and actually working under
real-world conditions.
Looking the other way and pretending that e-waste and others forms
of hazardous waste are not being disposed of irresponsibly is no longer an acceptable
solution for policy makers.
We still have time to build better systems for the recycling
of CFLs, as many will not need to be recycled before 2014, but we need to get a
move on and to make good use of the time we still have.
At the same time, we might as well develop an integrated
system for handling all of the other e-waste and hazardous waste, which can be similarly
difficult to collect and dispose of properly.
Useful links: Battery Recycling UK http://www.batteryrecycling-uk.co.uk Recolight http://www.recolight.co.uk/ Posted 7:25 AM by Matt Prescott 
Tuesday, May 08, 2012100% Recycling of Compact Fluorescent LampsWhy 100% of domestic CFLs should be recycled...The Ban The Bulb campaign is delighted that the phasing out domestic incandescent light bulbs across the EU is now almost complete; with the final 25W and 40W bans taking place in Sept 2012. However, much remains to be done, especially when it come to ensuring that it is simple and normal for all used CFLs to be recycled. Compact fluorescent lamps offer 60% energy savings compared to their incandescent equivalents and have become the cheap, mainstream energy-saving technology of choice, yet they still contain 1 - 5mg of mercury. Mercury is a toxic substance so it is extremely important that it's always disposed of responsibly. Until mercury-free, energy efficient alternatives such as LEDs (which use 90% less energy than their incandescent alternatives) take over, by falling further in price, new and universal recycling systems need to be put in place, which consistently ensure that 100% of CFLs can be quickly and easily recycled by everyone. Countries such as Sweden manage to recycle 75% of their domestic CFLs (rising to 90% within their commercial sector) whilst other countries such as Bulgaria recycle 0% of their domestic CFLs (ref: Project EnERLIn, "Report on CFL Recycling Across Europe", 2008).  The Ban The Bulb campaign has called for the recycling of CFLs for many years (see Campaign Goal 4 on the top left of this website), so it is extremely frustrating that so little progress has been made in this important area. The Ban The Bulb campaign would like to propose two possible solutions, which should either be implemented or bettered: OPTION 1 would be the return of a small 5p or 5 cent deposit every time a CFL was handed in to a shop or recycling centre. This system has worked exceptionally well in relation to incentivising the recycling of beer and/or soda bottles in many European countries and could similarly help to build a usable light bulb recycling system in countries instituting a ban. OPTION 2 would be for cities, councils and countries to offer the doorstep recycling of CFLs. This option might be made possible through the use of specially designed boxes, which stored CFLs safely and could be collected at the same time as other recycled waste. It is unacceptable that most people face no convenient options, other than to dispose of their used CFLs via general waste bins and thus landfill. The quantities of mercury contained within each CFL are relatively small and safely contained within intact CFLs, but breakages within the present disposal system are inevitable and need to be addressed. Over the next 2 - 4 years many millions of used CFLs will need to be disposed, as they come to the end of their useful lives, so before this happens it would be wise to put in place usable and accessible disposal systems for this waste. In the UK, Recolight has done a highly commendable job of recycling CFLs, via retailers, but it remains the case that the majority of people are unaware of this system and/or not using it. This means that new recycling systems, which reliably dispose of 100% of used CFLs need to be organised in the UK and every other country instituting a light bulb ban. We still have time to act, but we now need to act without any further delay. Labels: CFLs, convenient and accessible., EU, mercury collection, recycling, RoHS, safe, universal disposal systems, WEEE Posted 5:55 AM by Matt Prescott
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