Bright ideas

Several new, low-energy lighting technologies are gaining popularity in the region, but with progress comes problems as Greg Whitaker found out.

All over the world sales of compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) are being touted as a way to save energy and fight global warming. As the Emirates have started to take notice of so-called green building regulations, the sale of these lamps is being actively promoted.

These new lamps have advanced in technology over the past couple of years and now they produce a similar amount of light as their incandescent counterparts. CFLs today also escape the harsh and flickering light associated with earlier products.

Safety issues

It should be noted that such lamps contain small amounts of mercury, a neurotoxin that is especially dangerous for small children and pregnant women. Currently there is no safe way of disposing of these lamps in the UAE.

The danger comes when the light bulb breaks; the mercury seeps out and can pollute the groundwater.

Although the amount contained in each unit is negligible, if a city the size of Dubai adopted the technology on a large-scale then tens of thousands of lamps could soon find their way into the municipality's dumps each year, with potentially disastrous consequences.

In some countries it is illegal to throw the lamps in with general rubbish. In Europe the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive specifically caters for such issues.

A spokesman for Biffa, a UK-based waste management and collection service comments: "The problem with the lamps is that they break in the bins, long before they get to landfill. This means that workers might be exposed to mercury when that happens

"Any business of any size that manufacturers, imports or sells under their own brand, equipment that relies on electrical current to work is now considered a ‘producer' and must legally register with a Compliance Scheme," he adds.

Producer responsibilities are watchwords across much of the industry. General Electric has been making CFLs for 20 years. Now the company admits that the small amount of mercury contained in each lamp could become a real problem if sales balloon as expected.

"Given what we anticipate to be the significant increase in the use of these products, we are now beginning to look at, and shortly we'll be discussing with legislators, possibly a national solution here," comments Earl Jones, a senior counsel for General Electric.

In many countries, major stores will take back used lamps for safe disposal. Leading the charge is the Swedish-owned furniture chain Ikea. In the UK the firm will re-process any CFL brought into the store.

However, the outlet in Festival City, Dubai confirmed that there are currently no plans to introduce such a scheme into the UAE.

Dr Matt Prescott, environmental campaigner and webmaster of banthebulb.org comments: "The mercury contained within a CFL should be recycled, so I would recommend that proper recycling schemes are established, either via [the municipality] or retailers.

Prescott is keen to put the small amount of toxins contained in each bulb into perspective.

The 4mg of mercury contained in a CFL is less than that contained in the emissions produced by burning excess fossil fuels to power incandescent lamps," he states, adding: "If you are using coal, approximately three times more mercury is released into the atmosphere than is contained in a recyclable CFL, and the figure is likely to be the same if you are using oil."