As You Sow filed a shareholder resolution with General Electric (GE) in 2009 requesting the company begin labelling their CFL packaging with information on mercury content and safe clean up instructions for broken bulbs. After our engagement with the company on the importance of providing this information to ensure the safety of their CFL using customers, the company began working with the National Electronics Manufacturers Association (NEMA) to move the industry on this issue. In 2010, NEMA and GE successfully urged the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) rule that manufacturers must include mercury content and a web link to clean-up information on all CFL packaging. The special clean-up information can be found on the EPA website at http://www.epa.gov/cfl/cflcleanup.html.

Background

The most popular alternative to incandescent bulbs is compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) and fluorescent bulbs. CFLs tend to be used in the home, where fluorescent bulbs are used in offices and industrial buildings and make up approximately 70% of the market. Each of the major retailers have goals and incentives as per sale of CFLs – Wal-Mart sold more than 100 million CFLs in 2007 and Home Depot gave away one million CFLs at its stores in celebration of Earth Day 2008. Each retailer is working to keep the costs of CFLs reduced so that larger numbers of consumers will purchase them.

Although CFLs have become the poster-child for how the average consumer can help stop global warming, CFLs and fluorescent bulbs present social and environmental challenges. Their toxicity requires that production factories be closely monitored to ensure that workers are not exposed to hazardous components like mercury, that consumers are informed of the mercury content in bulbs and proper cleanup in case of accidental breakage, and a special collection system is required to ensure that they do not contaminate waste streams and end up in landfills.