Out of Control

Judging from editorials in the last few days, LED lighting industry reps don’t mind being left out of the press right now. One editorial summarizes a 92-page DOE report on the U.S. experience with CFLs:

It's a decent read for those with marketing and business development interests. The bottom line is that with strong energy company incentives to get CFLs into the consumers hands, the market share in the conservation-oriented northwestern US peaked at close to 12% in 2001 before settling back down to somewhere in the 5-8% range. Nationally, CFLs held only 1.6% of the residential sockets, according to 2002 data…

The DOE report also says, “CFLs had an image problem that was hard to overcome. In many consumer focus groups, the very word ‘fluorescent’ invoked connotations such as ‘harsh, cold, glaring, flickering, buzzing, artificial, and ugly’ and fluorescent lighting was associated with eye strain, noise, greenish skin tones, and institutional settings.” Indeed, few technologies have made saving energy less appealing than CFLs.

Then there’s the problem about CFLs containing mercury, which is why they’re already banned from landfills and could soon be banned for sale under various California RoHS directives. In the meantime, the folks over at the Environmental Working Group blog have this advice:

Do not put your CFLs out for regular trash pick-up. Instead, store them in a shoebox in your garage or closet and when the box gets full take them to a recycling facility or hazardous waste drop-off to dispose of them all at once....I’m going to keep my expired CFLs right next to the box of 25 incandescents I replaced this fall. My guess is disposal options for CFLs will be better by the time that shoebox gets full.

Guess that depends on the size of the shoebox, among other things.