The Neon Bender's BBS!

The Archive no longer allows posting but search of hundreds of previous posts are available
If you have any questions please contact us.

[Please Read]

[ View Thread ] [ Return to Search ] [ Read Prev Msg ] [ Read Next Msg ]

Re: Mercury in Vermont

Posted By: Don Miner
Date: Friday, 9 February 2007, at 9:45 p.m.

In Response To: Re: Mercury in Vermont (John Anderson)


> I don't think it's Al Gore - his issue is
> climate change. The Vermont law has nothing
> to do with energy efficiency or carbon
> emissons, it's about unrecycled Hg thrown
> into landfills.

> A big difference between fluorescent lamps
> and "neon" is that (at least here
> in Texas) nearly all commercially-serviced
> tubes get recycled. And I mean COMPLETELY
> recycled. The spent tubes are picked up by
> the same person who services the sign, put
> in a box, and the tubes sent off
> by-the-carton. Automated machines whack off
> the end caps, recycling the aluminum, scrape
> out the phosphor, crush the glass, and
> distill off the Hg at nearly 100% recovery.
> It's efficient, fast, and cheap.

> You can do this to a neon tube as well, but
> since each one is different it's a little
> more complicated. The neon industry might
> fight off regulation for a while, but in the
> end there will be few products manufactured
> using Hg that are allowed to be disposed of
> without requiring them to be recycled. That
> club of products is already very small, and
> shinking quickly. Folks can argue all they
> want about metallic Hg vs. organic, the
> relatively tiny slice of the Hg-pie the neon
> industry contributes compared to power-plant
> emissions, etc. All TRUE, very valid points
> - but they are dwarfed and will fall on deaf
> ears in the global wave of Hg reduction
> efforts. Our industry's only long-term
> solution is simply to support recycling.
> Neon offers serveral advantages over
> standard fluorescent lamps with regards to
> this:

> 1. The tube is more likely to be serviced by
> a professional technician than a fluorescent
> lamp (which is often a homeowner who bought
> their light at Home Depot).

> 2. Cold cathode fluorescent tubes (aka
> "neon") last significantly longer
> than fluorescent lamps, and required
> disposal occurs more infrequently.

> A mercury-containing neon tube is easily
> recycled by crushing and distilling off the
> Hg for purification and use again. It's
> actually much simpler and cheaper than the
> recycling processes for some other metals
> like lead and cadnium. We just need access
> to these services like the flourescent lamp
> folks have. I currently use the 5-gallon Hg
> "buckets" - that for around 100
> bucks recycle up to a several lbs. It's
> really a make-shift solution for neon tubes,
> and there is considerable room for
> improvement and convenience.
This is all well and good, but how are we to recycle a neon tube to regain the mercury when the tube gets broken and the mercury is lost in the field and is impossible to retrieve? I do wholesale neon for many sign companies and when the tubes come to me broken, what am I to do. The main reason many tubes come in for repair are due to the breakage factor. Just MHO Thanks, Don


Messages In This Thread

[ View Thread ] [ Return to Search ] [ Read Prev Msg ] [ Read Next Msg ]

Neon Bender's BBS! is maintained by Kenny with WebBBS 5.12.

This page Copyright © 1996-2005 Krypton Neon