On 11/29/2019 at 3:37 AM, rickeieio said:

Moot point.  I've never heard of anyone recycling light bulbs.

I've replaced a few lights w/ led's.  The fixtures in the shop made a huge difference. I put all led's on the truck bed when I built it, and have converted a few tractor lights to led too.  The price is coming down dramatically.

I took a box of the old spiral-type bulbs to the recycle center, they told me to put them in my trash basket, as there was no one to send them too. BTW those have a small amount of mercury in them, just like tubular florescent bulbs.

  On 11/29/2019 at 3:37 AM, rickeieio said:

Moot point.  I've never heard of anyone recycling light bulbs.

I've replaced a few lights w/ led's.  The fixtures in the shop made a huge difference. I put all led's on the truck bed when I built it, and have converted a few tractor lights to led too.  The price is coming down dramatically.

the earth recycles them.

it is not a forced human thing, just “if” the item was just tossed onto the ground.

plastic will be there for ever and ten days. 

glass and tin will be reduced back the native elements.

Glass will NEVER decompose. while plastics do, but some do it very slowly.  Tin is an element, thus it will degrade, but never decompose.

Regardless, both conventional and led's take up space in landfills, but led's will take up far less.

i never said "decompose". needs to be organic to decompose.

but glass is only refined and melted sand. plastic does not decompose. or return to its native elements. sure weather can erode it to plastic dust. but that is not a nat element.

and everything non food (organic) stuffs, just buried under ground will tend to stay that way for a very long time, as in many human life times.

glass is very durable that way, but in the open, or in a river setting it will erode over time, and return to its sand beginnings.

to me what happens in the end to the product mtr is the answer. not how long it will last.

no i am not one of tho's environmental nut cases. just for me less garbage is better.

i can not remember the last time i placed a normal light bulb in the trash. but i have dumped a number of leds in the trash in the past couple of years. (home use stuff).

i always smash the glass bulbs.

mercury vapor, in the house i avoid like the plague. yes i have some tubes in the garage. have had them for many years. never a problem as long as the glass is not broken. but nothing worth it to replace them with. but the price has gone up to way over board. so in the future? if they ever burn out.

Edited December 4 by packnrat

and if leds are so great, why did the government ban the making and importation of normal incandescent bulbs?

  On 12/4/2019 at 12:20 AM, packnrat said:

glass is very durable that way, but in the open, or in a river setting it will erode over time, and return to its sand beginnings.

With all due respect, it's my understanding that even when glass breaks into tiny shards it retains its "glass-like" vitreous character. Yes, it starts life as sand but it doesn't become sand ever again.

Packrat, would you please give me the link for your statement:

 
Quote

glass is very durable that way, but in the open, or in a river setting it will erode over time, and return to its sand beginnings.

Because as a chemist/chemical engineer I want to see the research on this  phenomena.  Yes, there are sands than contain volcanic glass, but under the microscope those are glass bits, not sand grains.  Now, if you use pressure and heat, say in a volcano, then you would form magma, which might flow out as molten rock which when cooled, would go through erosion and finally become sand (and sand is different all over the world).   And the type of sand would depend upon the types of other minerals beside SiO2 in the magma, which is dependent upon the place on the mantel that the hotspot occurs.   

  On 12/4/2019 at 12:29 AM, packnrat said:

and if leds are so great, why did the government ban the making and importation of normal incandescent bulbs?

Because people in the USA would continue buy them because they are cheaper even if they harm the environment in the long run.   That's what being scientifically illiteracy does to a country.    Short-term, what's in it for me versus long-term, what is good for everyone on the planet in the coming centuries.

  On 12/4/2019 at 12:20 AM, packnrat said:

i never said "decompose". needs to be organic to decompose.

but glass is only refined and melted sand. plastic does not decompose. or return to its native elements. sure weather can erode it to plastic dust. but that is not a nat element.  .........

Actually there are microbes that 'eat' plastics and some engineered enzymes that break down plastic into shorter chains that bacteria/fungi can use.   This is a very hot area of research - we have a friend involved in some of the engineered enzymes, very intriguing.   

Edited December 4 by Barbaraok

  On 12/4/2019 at 12:29 AM, packnrat said:

and if leds are so great, why did the government ban the making and importation of normal incandescent bulbs?

With all due respect, incandescent light bulbs haven't been banned.  What has happened is that the government has imposed an efficiency standard similar to what was done for home air conditioners, automobiles and lots of other things.  I've provided an article which explains the issue in more detail:  Incandescent lights haven't been banned

There's a lot of misinformation spread on the internet by people who want to make a political statement out of something like this.  It usually doesn't take all that much effort to get to the truth.