halogen lamp disposal

[SteveB]

Toss it in the trash?

[Joe]

What is the proper way to dispose of a halogen lamp? Would an electronic waste recycling center accept it ?

[trader4]

"Toss it in the trash? "

Sounds right to me. Why would you do anything else?

[SteveB]

I guess it could explode and derail a trash freight train.

Or fall off a garbage barge and get stuck in the blowhole of a whale and have the whale die on the beach. (Hey, it happened in a Seinfeld episode with a golf ball.)

Or, it could fall off a garbage truck and then a SUV full of nine year old soccer players and a soccer mom could run over it and have a blowout and run into a station wagon full of nuns.

Lots of things can happen when you're paranoid......................

WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING AT ! ! ? ?

Steve ;-)

[Joe]

I'm more concerned about finding a way to recycle something that isn't needed rather than have it fill up a landfill.

[TPutmann]

Mercury bulbs are the ones you should be concerned about, because they contain (guess what?). Halogen bulbs are the same as a standard lightbulb except they look different and contain halogen gas. Otherwise they are glass and a filament.

[Edwin Pawlowski]

OP may be thinking of fluorescent bulbs?

[gonadical]

I dont need my wife ....... Any siggestions for disposal?

[Don Klipstein]

I have yet to hear of the usual halogen lamps being subject to disposal regulations anywhere. Some have small boards, but you can throw them out anywhere you can throw out radios, digital clocks, etc. The bulbs do not contain mercury nor other chemical hazards that would be a disposal problem.

- Don Klipstein ( [e-mail])

[Joseph Meehan]

The contents of a halogen lamp are about the same of a standard tungsten lamp. No special treatment.

Now florescent lamps are different.

[Edwin Pawlowski]

Then just do whatever you do with the old style bulbs. Our town recycling center does not want light bulb glass in with the regular glass as it is not a good mix. It has something to do with the tempering of the glass.

[whisper29]

While I would agree that recycling the tungsten would be wise, you are missing the point that when a lightbulb burns out, most of the tungsten is gone. It just vaporizes in time. Although, if a bulb is broken by dropping it or another accident, then there may still be some tungsten left.

[Don Klipstein]

I suspect that about 97% of the bulk is lower grade steel and another 1 of the remaining 3 or whatever % is copper.

A futher complication: The main structural parts and the main weighting part in the base I suspect to be different and non-interchangeable varieties of cheaper steel/iron.

As for need to recycle these as opposed to other items: It appears to me that the biggest need for recycling is to avoid landfills and incinerators, and the bigger trash items I see in these areas are paper and plastic. Second-biggest need that I see for recycling: Recycling plastics to reduce consumption of natural gas and maybe petroleum, and after that recycling disposable aluminum items to avoid the large electrical energy needs of producing aluminum.

After that: Tungsten, which is used in incandescent lightbulbs, halogen ones, all of the usual fluorescent ones, and most HID types. Since fluorescent ones last a lot longer when used where suitable, usage of fluorescent lamps where suitable will reduce transfer of this planet's tungsten reserves to landfills. However, this planet has yet to experience a tungsten shortage sufficient to motivate significant recycling of items using it. However, I am concerned about tungsten since I have seen a bit of info (a few years ago) showing how worldwide reserves of critical industrial materials showed new discoveries allowing recent consumption increases to continue, and the main problem people see is with petroleum. However, tungsten is what got listed as where known reserves actually decreased.

As for iron and steel: Consider that the Earth's crust is a few percent iron. The main other item needed for making steel from iron is coal, and the USA has a few times more coal than the Middle East has petroleum! The main hurdle here is acceptably minimizing air pollution, and after that acceptably minimizing the negative effects of mining the coal!

Oh, and the Earth's crust has about as much aluminum as iron. The main hurdle here is that reducing mineable aluminum compunds to metal requires an electrolysis method that has a big requirement for electrical energy, Then again, aluminum production is not as big a need of electricity as lighting and bigger-still air conditioning (combined with refrigeration) is...

- Don Klipstein ( [e-mail])

[Don Klipstein]

Lightbulbs normally fail when only around 1% of the tungsten has evaporated.

What happens is that the filament does not suffer evaporation in a perfectly even manner, and you get a thin spot. That thin spot becomes a hot spot, and has its evaporation rate worned, and this process reinforces itself. The filament usually fails from this thin spot melting.

A thin spot like this gets thinner at a rate that accelerates worse than exponentially. By the time such a thin spot gets really significant, the filament's hours are numbered.

- Don Klipstein ( [e-mail])