Harford County Government Recycles Fluorescent Light Tubes

WasteWatch - Spring 2004

Harford County employees, left to right, Phillip Anders, Edgar Fincham and Charles Myers demonstrate the Bulb Eater. Photo courtesy of WasteWatch

Harford County has initiated a program to recycle all of the burned-out fluorescent light tubes collected from county buildings. Fluorescent tubes contain a tiny ball of mercury, about 40 milligrams, that turns into a vapor during use. The recycling program will keep this highly toxic element out of the environment by using a special recycling device called a Bulb Eater.

The Bulb Eater (see picture) crushes the tubes into a 55 gallon drum. It can crush bulbs as quickly as the operator can feed them into the tube at the top of the device. The Bulb Eater uses a vacuum to contain harmful dust and vapors and has several filters to protect the equipment operator and the environment. All of the bulbs are processed on-site at the county's Department of Administration ΓÇö Facilities and Operations Division. The Bulb Eater is manufactured by Air Cycle Corporation of Broadview, Illinois.

A full drum can hold more than one thousand spent tubes and weighs approximately 500 pounds. Once the drum is full, it becomes part of a nationwide recycling program. It is picked up by Air Cycle to be processed at a recycling facility, where the mercury is separated from the glass shards and metal end caps.

Approximately 650 million fluorescent lamps are disposed of each year. This generates 30,000 pounds of mercury waste a year. It is estimated that as little as 25 percent of all fluorescent bulbs are recycled in this country. Harford County is leading an effort to improve that statistic by doing its part to keep mercury from lamp bulbs out of the environment.

Letter from Harford
County Government

Watch the video of Harford County News segment on Bulb Eater:

Harford County News Video » [wmv - 8mb]

View full article in Northern Maryland Waste Disposal Authority - WasteWatch Volume 15, Issue 2 Spring 2004:

WasteWatch-Spring2004 » [PDF]
Letter from Harford County Government » [JPG]