Fluorescent Light Bulb Recycling Gains Momentum

Japan's JFE KANKYO Corp., mainly involved in the recycling business, announced that it has built a new plant for recycling used fluorescent light bulbs that will start operation in late January 2004. Their intent is to respond to increasing public demand for recycling these light bulbs. The plant will make it possible to recycle a variety of fluorescent bulbs such as compact fluorescent light bulbs as well as circular ones, which have so far proven difficult to process.

It is estimated that about 350 million used fluorescent light bulbs, amounting to about 60,000 tons, are discarded annually in Japan. Slightly more than ten percent of these are thought to be recycled. However, efforts to recycle fluorescent bulbs, particularly those for business use, are gaining momentum since fluorescent bulbs were added to the list of products subject to the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry's recycling guidelines in July 2001, and also with the spread of ISO 14001-related activities.

The company has started to increase its plants' recycling capacity in order to meet possible growth in demand. Currently, it can recover 2,500 tons of used fluorescent bulbs annually given full operation. The new plant will allow the company to expand its recycling capacity to 5,000 tons a year.

Used fluorescent bulbs are collected when they have no broken glass, in order to prevent environmental pollution by mercury discharge. At a processing facility, the bulbs are separated into caps and glass tubes, and then mercury and fluorescent powder are recovered in a dry process.

The mercury remaining in the fluorescent powder is collected using a vacuum-distillation unit, and is sold to an allied German refining company that renders it reusable. JFE KANKYO Corp. has obtained approval for these transactions in conformity with the Basel Treaty, or the "Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal." Glass, the largest component of fluorescent bulbs, is cleaned with acids, dried and then reused in building materials, such as lightweight aggregate and glass wool. Meanwhile, caps are separated into metals and plastics through a crushing and sorting process, making them reusable. By recovering each of these materials, the company aims to achieve 100 percent recycling of fluorescent bulbs.



Posted: 2004/02/12 09:38:33 PM
Japanese version