Bulbs, batteries and mercury are part of Environmental Management's recycling efforts

  • Published
  • By Ted Theopolos
  • 88th Air Base Wing Public Affairs
WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Ohio --  Did you know that during the past decade Wright-Patterson Air Force Base has recycled more than 255,000 lbs of light bulbs? Not impressed? Consider this: a 4-ft fluorescent bulb weighs about a half-a-pound, and that means more than a half a million light bulbs have been kept out of the trash at the base.

Most of these bulbs are the fluorescent type and contain a small amount of mercury. Although the amount of mercury has been reduced over the years, they still have about 1/100 of the amount of mercury found in a mercury fever thermometer. With more than 670 million mercury bulbs discarded each year, collectively, these bulbs have the potential to release significant amounts of mercury into the environment.

At Wright-Patt, that doesn't happen. "The bulbs are hazardous waste, but we follow Environmental Protection Agency's Universal Waste regulations, which have less stringent management requirements than the hazardous waste regulations," said Gary Selby, Hazardous Waste Program Manager in the 88th Air Base Wing's Environment Management Division.

The reason that hospitals, schools and the base use fluorescent bulbs is because they are significantly more energy-efficient than incandescent bulbs, lasting up to 10 to 20 times longer than incandescent bulbs and converting about 22% of their energy to light, versus only 2% with incandescent bulbs.

For the base, there are several steps to recycling a burned out, or spent bulb. "The majority of spent fluorescent bulbs are replaced by real property building managers," said Selby. "They store them in cardboard boxes according to the Universal Waste regulations and contact our office for removal. The base's hazardous waste contractor collects the boxes each Wednesday and takes them to Building 72 in Area B. Once there is enough to fill a semi-truck, the waste contractor arranges a shipment to a recycling company. We average two to three shipments a year."

Bulbs are just one universal waste item that the Environment Management Division recycles. "Working with our Unit Environmental Coordinators, we've recycled more than 5,000 lbs of mercury-containing equipment, including switches, thermometers and laboratory equipment. In 2007 we recycled more than 3,500 lbs of ignitron tubes, containing nearly 400 lbs of liquid mercury," said Selby. "And we're approaching 35,000 lbs of non-alkaline batteries, which include lithium, nickel-cadmium, mercury and zinc types."

That's just the tip of the battery iceberg at Wright-Patt. According to Bill Meinerding, the Solid Waste Program Manager, "Since 2001 the Recycling Center has sold more than 320,000 lbs of lead-acid batteries for scrap metal. These include vehicle batteries from base employees and large batteries from buildings."