Abandonment of energy-saving lamps and turning waste into treasure into a "three difficulties" situation

Since the beginning of October this year, many people living in the lake view community have found a bright half man box in front of their own community. In fact, these yellow boxes are the waste energy saving lamp recycling boxes designed and installed by the Foshan Lighting Association. These boxes have been stationed in the 12 first demonstration communities, and 25 waste energy saving bins have been set up.

In recent years, energy saving lamps have gradually replaced traditional incandescent lamps with their characteristics of high life and low energy consumption. However, very few people know about the toxic chemical substances mercury (commonly known as mercury) in waste energy saving lamps.

"Each energy saving lamp has a mercury content of about 5 mg, while the penetration of 1 mg of mercury into the ground will cause pollution of about 360 tons of water. There are about 4 million energy saving lamps in Foshan every year, and the environmental pollution can be imagined. The speech of Zhang Hua, Secretary General of Foshan lighting and Lighting Association, reflects the reality that Foshan's current treatment of waste energy saving lamps is almost a vacuum state. It is imperative for spreading channels to carry out systematic recovery of waste energy saving lamps.

However, the cost of recycling, transportation and processing of an energy-saving lamp is more than 3 yuan. Spreading the channel to collect and dispose of the waste energy saving lamps has become another difficult problem to be solved in Foshan's environmental protection.

Waste lamps and lanterns pollute human health

At present, 12 communities of Tangyuan community, garden community and lake view community have set up 25 recycling boxes for waste energy saving lamps. These boxes are all yellow, and the boxes are marked with words of waste energy saving lamps, and there are warm tips such as "shattered, easy to pollute, please handle with care".

When the time comes back to 2008, the state starts the "green lighting" project, and the large number of users such as urban and rural residents, enterprises and institutions can get financial subsidies ranging from 30% to 50% by buying and using the winning business energy saving lamps. Against this background, the promotion of energy-saving lamps in China is very fast. In 2009 alone, there were 2 million 50 thousand quotas for the promotion of efficient lighting products in Foshan.

It is reported that the service life of general energy-saving lamps is 3000 to 5000 hours. According to the frequency of users, an energy-saving lamp can generally be used for 3 to 4 years. Nowadays, many household energy-saving lamps have reached the stage of intensive scrapping.

At present, the disposal of energy-saving lamps by the public is usually thrown into the garbage bin at will, and the public knows little about the environmental hazards of energy saving lamps. In fact, if the waste energy lamp is thrown into the trash bin at random, the mercury vapor generated after crushing and burning will enter the atmosphere, then settle into the soil or river and transform it into organic mercury compounds (such as methyl mercury). Methylmercury can be absorbed by the respiratory system, digestive system, and even through the skin, and accumulate in organs such as liver, kidney and brain of the human body, leading to chronic poisoning.

"The amount of mercury in the human body can not exceed 1.15 mg, and the human body can be killed by inhaling 2.5 grams of steam at a time." Zhang Hua said that humans will be indirectly contaminated by mercury. Because of mercury pollution, Mercury will also be absorbed by other animals and plants, accumulate in the body, and eventually enter the human body through the food chain.

He said, there are nearly 2 million families in Foshan. According to the replacement of 1 to 2 energy saving lamps per household every year, there are 2 million to 4 million energy saving lamps per year, and the mercury content of each energy saving lamp is generally about 5 milligrams, while the penetration of 1 mg of mercury into the underground will cause about 360 tons of water pollution.

According to the insiders, if China's energy-saving lamp promotion fails to support the recovery part, it will not be able to form a sustainable and benign cycle of industry and urban development, and it is difficult for the national health to be guaranteed. "The members of our association are all lighting enterprises. It is very clear to discard the hazards of waste energy saving lamps, and the 12 communities as a pilot to spread the recycling channel is only a small step for us. I hope the whole society will pay attention to the recycling of energy-saving lamps, so that more waste energy saving lamps can be recycled." Zhang Hua said.

Collection of difficult waste energy saving lamps to solve problems

In December 3rd, Avon and Finn left the office at 8:30 a.m. in Foshan. From the lake view community, they traveled to 12 communities to recover the discarded energy saving lamps from the public.

In front of the Yellow waste energy saving lamp recycling box at the gate of Hanford Lake District, they put on rubber gloves, lifted the lid of the Yellow recycling box, and carefully removed a long tube and a waste energy saving bulb from the inside of the box. This is the first time that the Foshan Lighting Association has recovered the lamp since it installed the energy-saving lamp recycling box in October. For the two staff responsible for recycling, the recovery work must last for two days. They have to run through all the districts in Chancheng to collect the waste light bulbs and send them to the Foshan electrical lighting Limited by Share Ltd for processing.

"FSL has a machine imported from Sweden, originally used to dispose of its company's waste lamps. Now our association is working with this company. We are responsible for entering the community to collect waste energy saving lamps, and they help waste utilization." Avon told reporters.

"After the energy saving bulb is recovered, it will be processed by professional separator. It can separate the phosphor and mercury from the bulb, and together with other raw materials, it can be used to produce new energy-saving lamps." Zhang Hua said that this machine has only two units in Guangdong. FSL's machine can use waste energy saving light bulbs 100% and turn waste into treasure. "This machine is not enough at present, and it will be all right if the waste energy saving lamps are used to deal with the Foshan area."

"There are no obstacles to the disposal of waste energy saving lamps, but it is difficult to lay them in the canal." Zhang Hua said that foreign recycling channels and national awareness of recycling are very good, many cities in China are also trying to discard energy-saving lamps recycling, but the effect is not very satisfactory.

High cost and disposal of waste energy saving lamps need a lot of capital and manpower support.

At present, the users of energy-saving lamps are scattered, the lamp tubes are fragile, and the recycling points are few, so it is difficult to deal with them in large quantities. Laying more waste energy saving lamps and recycling outlets requires a lot of capital and manpower support.

"The cost of recovery, transportation and processing of an energy-saving lamp is generally over 3 yuan, much higher than the value of the resources obtained." Zhang Hua said that they hope to carry out the recycling work for a long time and promote it in a large area, but the cost of processing can not be avoided.

At present, the first batch of waste energy saving lamp recycling pilot projects have been launched. The Foshan lighting and lighting association has spent hundreds of thousands of fees, and the association will continue to promote the recovery of waste energy saving lamps through continuous activities.

"Waste energy saving lamps in cities are large enough to be destroyed. Once the villagers in the village throw away the energy-saving lamps everywhere, they will directly pollute the soil and water because they do not carry out the hard bottomed roads in many rural areas. He said that the more the recycling network lay, the better the village must be covered as soon as possible. "To solve the problem of recycling is the maximum utilization of resources. Our association is doing this now, but after all, it is very weak. This will be a protracted war which requires the attention of the government, enterprises and the whole community. "

How to deal with waste energy saving lamps abroad?

Because the mercury pollution of waste energy saving lamps is harmful to the environment, the recovery and treatment of energy-saving lamps abroad are also attached great importance to, and the recovery of waste lamps is relatively perfect. Data show that the recovery rate of waste energy saving lamps in Japan, Europe and the United States and Taiwan in China is more than 80%.

The environmental protection act of the United States stipulates that the original owners of waste should always be responsible for their waste, so that the disposal of high intensity gas discharge lamps is also on the agenda. The US Pioneer Co has set up a recycling and processing plant for waste high-intensity gas discharge lamps, which will handle the waste high intensity gas discharge lamps free of charge for consumers at the expense of new lamps.

In addition, 7 states in the United States are prohibited from placing energy-saving lamps directly in conventional garbage bags. In other states of the United States, waste energy saving lamps are disposed of at a specific time of the year.

Japan is the best country in the recycling of energy-saving lamps. In Hokkaido, there are institutions dealing with waste batteries and waste energy saving lamps. Its collection mode 93% is collected by non-governmental environmental protection organizations, and 7% is collected by various manufacturers.

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