Florescent Lighting Bans?

[bdhsfz6]

In this rural part of the state, the only recycling available is for paper, metal, glass and some types of plastic. We faithfully take this to the county recycle center, which is just a dew miles away. There is absolutely no way for us to recycle things like paint, household & garden chemicals, and other items considered toxic. Even used motor oil is a problem. Unfortunately our only option is to "hide" these items in our garbage and hope for the best.

Sometimes, Home Depot will take fluorescent tubes, CFL's and small batteries but not always. Seems to depend on which way the wind is blowing on any particular day.

Once a year, the county sponsors an electronics recycling event for things like computers, printers, FAX machines, etc. There is a $25 fee per carload, so the neighbors all get together, fill the bed of my pickup and kick in a few bucks.

Sadly, around here, most of these toxic items wind up in a landfill or on the side of the road somewhere. You would think with all the emphasis put on toxicity and recycling these days, the powers that be would provide a way to handle all this stuff instead of turning a blind eye.

 

[thclimer]

If you don't make recycling easy and free most people will not do it.

When it comes to hazardous items the cost to dispose should be built into the initial cost otherwise people will evade and dump it where you don't want it. Freon, tires, paint, batteries, electronics, TV's....etc., all this stuff you want disposed of properly should have the cost of recycling added to the initial purchase so when the time comes to throw it away there is a free and easy way to do the right thing.

 

[Oaktree]

In this rural part of the state, the only recycling available is for paper, metal, glass and some types of plastic. We faithfully take this to the county recycle center, which is just a dew miles away. There is absolutely no way for us to recycle things like paint, household & garden chemicals, and other items considered toxic. Even used motor oil is a problem. Unfortunately our only option is to "hide" these items in our garbage and hope for the best.

Pretty much the way it is here too. Recyclable stuff (#1 & 2 plastic, cardboard, newspaper, mixed paper, aluminum & steel cans & glass) is free to drop off. Likewise metal. Household trash must be in special trashbags which can be purchased at the transfer station or town hall. "Demolition" (kind of a catch-all for bulky stuff) costs whatever the attendant feels like charging you, there are set prices for tires, white goods & electronics.
O'Reilly's takes motor oil. Other hazardous waste is kind of as you described. Supposedly there's a hazardous waste day once a year, but the only place i know that does it is an hour or so away, and not often well publicized.

I get that there isn't a lot of financial incentive for recycling, but I do wish they didn't make it as difficult as it is. I really like to try and be a good citizen of this planet.

 

[WinterDeere]

If you don't make recycling easy and free most people will not do it.

When it comes to hazardous items the cost to dispose should be built into the initial cost...

I was working a lot in Germany 25 years ago, when they were debating this very issue. The plan or compromise they came to was that every company had to be held liable to take back everything they put out into the world, which fell outside the range of materials which could go into the regular recycling stream, from that date forward. A lot of people thought it was nuts at the time, but it actually became very manageable, because companies responded by reducing their use of unecessary "pretty" packaging, and by building their products out of more easily-recycled materials.

When I had a birthday age 8 or 10, my parents had a few cardboard boxes in their trash the following week. But when my kids had birthdays at the same age, I had so much plastic packaging waste that it'd take me two or more weeks to fit it all into the garbage. I'd love it if manufacturers started putting things in simple cardboard boxes on store shelves again, and got rid of all this plastic vacuum molded packaging crap, which requires tin snips and at least three swear words to open.

 

[ultrarunner]

We grew up recycling with the earliest being the public school paper drives starting in second grade which expanded to aluminum and glass food containers.

None of the schools or Scouts have recycle drives anymore.

Even the guy that would come for the hospital cardboard stopped coming after years.

Metals have always had a market…

The Scouts do hold one day e-cycling events for electronics.

The slap in the face is when home owners dutifully clean and sort for naught because it still ends up in the landfill…

 

[JTKub]

It's been difficult to find good quality fluorescent lamps and ballasts for the past 20 years or so anyway. The last of them are absolute junk unless you can find new old stock, or some rare quality made lamps/ballasts.

Unfortunately, even LED lamps and fixtures intended for commercial use are hit/miss these days. Like said, it's not the LED chips themselves, it's everything that drives them tend to be short lived junk. We've had numerous LED fixtures at the plant I work at stop working and need to be replaced.

I've converted 100+ fluorescent fixtures over to LED over the years at home or for friends/family. I strip the ballasts out of them and toss them into the electronic recycling bin at work, but you can leave the dead ballasts in place for the next guy to worry about if you choose also.

I buy the tubes that are powered from one end only. You just need a tombstone at the dead end to support the lamp is all. Often the tomb stones are crispy and broken, so they'll need to be replaced. You can get them by the dozen off the amazon machine for cheap.

The only LED tubes I've had failures with, were the first batch I used off eBay. You can't go cheap.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

I remember when electronic ballasts first came out, they were pushed for their energy savings, but turned out they caused a lot of noise issues on electric lines in computer rooms.
I have been running a few LED tubes on ballasts at home, and none have failed yet, and it's been a few years now.

 

[ultrarunner]

GE and Sylvania make up the bulk of what I have.

I’m a fan of T8 and we were the first major build in the city all T8 and compact Florescent.

In 30 years only one single compact Florescent ballast went bad…

In 30 years had a few short lived ballasts the first year and then the sweet spot for 15 or so years and the to now 3-4 ballasts a month..

I’m guess my medical halogen surgical bulbs will soon disappear…

I’m looking at $140k to replace with LED in 6 operating rooms…

People wonder why medical costs so much?

 

[WinterDeere]

People wonder why medical costs so much?

Oh, that one's easy! Lawyers.

Of course, high liability and lawyers are one big reason I'd rather have any difficult surgery here, than in most other countries on earth. Double-edged sword!

 

[Suburban Plowboy]

I'm a lawyer, and so was my grandfather. He took tort cases. Long ago, he was driving someone around Eastern Kentucky, where he lived, and his passenger noticed how poor the area was. He asked my grandfather where people got money to survive. My grandfather said, "Insurance companies."

Funny story, but it reflects poorly on him and the people in his area.

Where I live, there are all sorts of billboards advertising attorneys' services. Nearly all belong to tort lawyers. Some of them consist mainly of figures and the faces of smiling clients. "$4 MILLION!" Really disgusting.

My dad was a lawyer, too. He hated those signs. He missed the days when lawyers were not allowed to advertise.