Are Mercury Containing Lamps an issue in North Carolina?

Recently, North Carolina has made the news on a national level. In this case, however it is not on a positive note. Mercury levels in fish and water streams in NC are at unsafe levels. Today we would like to ask, "Do you think North Carolina Businesses should recycle their fluorescent lamps, HID lamps, and other mercury containing lamps?". NC DENR has put out a report entitled "Report on the Generation and Potential Recycling of Fluorescent Lights". In this report there is a section which address the total amount of mercury ready for discard in North Carolina in what they refer to as Lamps Containing Mercury or "LCM's". In Table 2 they have estimate of Mercury Content of LCM's in Use and Sold in North Carolina or fluorescent lamps to be specific.

Table 2: There are an estimated 15 million lamps ready for discard annually in NC, 11 Million from commercial "non-household". There are estimated to be 120 million mercury containing lamps in use in North Carolina. Think about this, based on their estimates that would equal 105,000,000 milligrams of mercury ready to be discarded in North Carolina. We want to hear from you. Are you currently recycling fluorescent lamps? Does your business or organization have a plan in place for recycling of mercury containing lamps? To find out more about recycling of lamps visit www.myecolamp.com

Keywords: Mercury Containing Lamps, Recycling Fluorescent Lamps, Ballast. HID Recycling. North Carolina, Raleigh.