The other item was brought to my attention over breakfast at IHOP. I was aghast to find out that compact fluorescent light bulbs (or the curly cue bulbs that are more environmentally- friendly) contain mercury? Later in this article, I will share the facts and what to do about recycling the light bulbs.

First, the Bloom Box, produced by Bloom Energy Corporation: There has been a lot of speculation and skepticism about the Bloom Box since the 60 Minutes episode aired February 21st. Most experts are questioning whether the box will be cheaper than solar power, cheaper than wind power and cheap enough to produce for individual consumers. Inside the boxes are hundreds of fuel cells made by baking sand, turning it into ceramic and painting it with a secret formula of green and black ink. These cells produce wireless electricity through a chemical process when fuel is added. Many types of fuel can be used – fossil fuel, natural gas, biodiesel—and the Bloom Box requires half of what a traditional power plant would use.

What makes this more than just pie-in-the-sky is the fact that twenty well-known companies have been trying out the product for as long as eighteen months. Google’s data center was Bloom’s first customer. EBay, another customer, claims it has saved over $100,000 in electricity costs in 9 months. FedEx and WalMart are also customers. I am sure in future months and years, we will be hearing much more about the Bloom Box. There are many YouTube videos on the subject, if you’d care to have a look.

Second, compact fluorescent light bulbs or CFL’s: So the curly cue “green” light bulbs contain mercury? How could I have missed that? According to mercury facts on lightbulbrecycling.com,

The mercury from one fluorescent bulb can pollute 6,000 gallons of water beyond safe levels for drinking!

Thankfully, there is a remedy and we need to get the word out: Every Home Depot has offered recycling for CFL’s since June, 2008. In the future, the U.S. government may mandate recycling of CFL’s. California already does. For everything you ever wanted to know about CFL recycling, go to the EPA website on the subject.

But hold the fort, even better LED light bulbs are on the way, and they contain no mercury. According to Josh Peterson of Fayetteville, AR,

…a 1.3-watt LED bulb uses less electricity than both the 60-watt incandescent and the 9-watt CFL bulb.

And—get this—they last up to 100,000 hours. Of course they are more expensive at around $80, but when you only have to buy them once every 10 years, who cares? The only problem is, they aren’t as bright as CFL’s—the equivalent of a 60-watt bulb is about their max.