How to properly dispose of CFLs

[HeyBub]

You would be correct if you tossed your crammed container from a moving car in the dead of night. But maybe not otherwise.

I said "interesting" because there's some ambivalence in the courts. While it is true the authorities can search without a warrant that which has been abandoned, if the (municipal) government requires you to put your trash in a can or bag and place your trash in a certain location, that's not the same as "abandoning."

If, then, the cops can go through your stuff, their rummaging is the equivalent of a 5th Amendment violation - you are being required to incriminate yourself. An incriminating document in a city-mandated trash bag is exactly the same as being in a safe in your home. The cops have to get a warrant. Or so the 9th Circuit has ruled.

On the other hand, if the person doing the scavenging is not affiliated with the government, say a reporter or private detective, you have a whole 'nother matter. Again, if the city requires you to surrender your wet nasties to the city, then the reporter or private eye is STEALING from either you or the city and is, as my Indian neighbor says, in "heap big trouble."

[dgk]

I generally leave recyclable stuff in my car (batteries, lights, plastic bags, etc) and whenever I happen to be at Home Depot I drop them off. Is that really so hard to do?

[Ashton Crusher]

And what's the tradeoff of energy saved by the CFLs vs energy wasted by all those people making an average 20 mile round trip burning gas?

[Harry K]

Yep but where I live the recycling is very limited. There is a convenient drop-off right in town but only for cans, aluminum cans, cardboard, news paper. I am keeping a coffee can for used batteries, dunno if they will take those or not. I alsohave a basement with a lot of E-scrap. That I can only get rid of by hauling to the next town (30 mile roundtrip) Somehow I always forget to load it up when I am going that ways.

Sure would be nice to have a spot for plastic recyclables.

Harry K

[HeyBub]

People who would travel twenty miles to properly dispose of a defunct CFL would be riding bicycles. No gas involved.

[Don Klipstein]

Keep dead CFLs lying around until you are heading towards their disposal site for other purposes. Next time you go to Home Depot, dump there all of your CFLs that croaked since the last time you went to HD with dead CFLs.

[Higgs Boson]

[...]

In our "green" city, to drop off batteries. there are tall, cylindrical receptables in the main library, the three (soon to be four) branch libraries, in the Y, in the Co-Op and probably other places I haven't checked yet.

Also, the City is preparing a new service to pick up toxic waste at domicile. It's only 2 mi. r/t for me to take toxic waste over to the recycling center, so I do it every few months ( don't accumulate much). Wbile there, I check out the paint shelves, where people drop off unwanted or semi-used paint; have scored some nice stuff. They are happy for people to take it.

Harry K, if you and your fellow townspeople would get together, I bet you could get the Powers That Be to establish a drop-off point less than 30 mi.r/t. Try it and let us know how it turns out.

HB

[Higgs Boson]

OMG! Never , NEvER" medicines in the toilet"!!! There is so much research put there about the disastrous consequences to wildlife of flushing, e.g. hormones and other human medicine down the toilet. Altered sexual characteristics of marine wildlife; interference with reproductive processes; general harm to the organism. Medicines should be neither flushed down the toilet nor placed in the trash. They should be disposed of in a toxic waste center. If there is really, really no such facility available to you, suggest you contact the doctor's office to arrange for disposal.

No point in commenting on the rest of the "suggestions" list above!

HB

[Harry K]

You are assuming tht the only reason people make that trip is to drop off the recyclables. I suspect anyone old enough to drive knows how to combine trips.

Harry K

[Harry K]

In my case that would be about 1 CFL a year or two. Just replaced one last week, can't recall when the last time was.

Harry K

[krw]

Not so. It's open season on trash. No warrants needed. You *have* abandoned it.

No, you're not required to put incriminating evidence in the trash. You can shred it, burn it, bury it, hoard it, or put it in your neighbor's trash after midnight.

There have been many cases to the contrary. Again, that's why shredders have become common.

[krw]

Any idea how much energy is needed to raise the food necessary to ride the bicycle that 20 miles?

[HeyBub]

Generally, you are correct. The Supreme Court ruled in California v Greenwood (1988) that there is no expectation of privacy when trash is put out to the curb, that a warrant was not needed.

If, however, the trash receptacle is on your property, the cops can't search without a warrant. The California Supreme Court (in re Robert Edwards et al) ruled that searching a trash can in the defendant's back yard was an unreasonable search. There are cities in which the trash collectors enter your back yard to retrieve your trash bags. Your consent to have the sanitation workers enter your yard to retrieve your gabage does not extend to trespass by police.

Some cities have made it illegal for anyone to tamper with containers of recyclables. Some enterprising souls were emptying resident's recycle bins (put out for collection) in order to bulk-sale the cans.

As to your observation that there are other ways to protect your privacy (shredding, etc.), there is no requirement under the 4th Amendment against unlawful searches or the 5th Amendment guarantee against self-incrimination that you do so. These protections are not voided by the authorities claiming you did not use the most secure method.

[HeyBub]

Hmm. At 6 calories per minute, and assuming 5 mph on a bicycle, one would burn, um, mumble-mumble, carry-the-three, ah, about 1400 calories. That's about three Big Macs (BM) without cheese. Assuming $3.50 per BM, that works out to be $10.50. But that includes profit.

Also, there's no cost that can be placed on the personal satisfaction that coming from saving the planet.

[HeyBub]

Is that so you can get your deposit back?

I mean there must be a good reason...

[HeyBub]

Of course there are. The author is not proposing sending dead CFLs to his congress-critter because he can't think where else to put them. It's just that the congress-critter is not in his living room at the time. I imagine the author is hoping for self-insertion.

[jw]

And I thought the whole purpose of CFL bulbs was to save energy. Now I'm supposed to burn up $10 worth of gasoline, plus the wear and tear on my car, my tires, and wear on the roads, (not to mention my time), everytime a lightbulb burns out and I have to drive to some recycling place. Now, lets see how this works.

THEN All these years I could buy a common incendescent bulb for 25 cents. When it died, I'd toss it in the garbage, leaving nothing but a very tiny amount of glass, and a thin brass base, plus a tiny amount of support wires. None of which was harmful to the environment.

NOW I have to spend $4 to $7 to buy the bulb. It generally dont last any longer than an incandescent bulb, dont work at all in cold weather, and have a lousy color for normal lighting. When it dies, I have to waste my time, burn up several gallons of gasoline, wear out my car, and the roads, and in the end I know that during manufacture and/or recycling, there will be some damage to the environment from the chemicals used.

THE SAVINGS The savings in electricity was half used up in the initial cost of the bulb, and the rest of it was used up in gasoline to drive to a recycling center, and if I'm in a rural area, the gasoline will likely cost more than the entire savings in electricity. YEt, this still dont take into consideration the wear and tear on my car, the roads, and if my time is worth even as little as $20 an hour, I might end up LOSING as little as $35, over and above the savings in electricity. Then again, it could cost much more if I'm from a rural area, and have to drive 30 or 50 miles to get to a recycling place.

[HeyBub]

What about "It's for the children" do you not grasp?

We're saddling them with an unmanageable debt, the least we can do is leave them millions of broken CFLs to rehabilitate.

Though what they would do with CFLs in a world lit by candles escapes me.

[krw]

Notice that I said "public right-of-way", above. Once the sanitation worker brings the bag to the truck, bingo, the cops are all over it like, well... ;-)

No, but that wasn't the point. There is *no* expectation of privacy WRT garbage, so be warned to use a shredder, or other method to make it private.

On a slightly different tack, you *are* required to incriminate yourself under search warrant, by giving the keys (physical or logical/encryption) to a filing cabinet so they can search it.

[krw]

Where do you propose they get candle wax?