A White Rock waste reduction company is questioning a recycling program that trucks used fluorescent lights to Ontario for recycling, when they can be crushed and sent to a smelter in Trail, B.C.
Currently, homeowners can take their used compact fluorescent lights (CFLs) to depots designated by the Product Care Association, which ships them intact to Aevitas Inc. in Ontario for recycling.
Businesses and institutions in B.C. have to pay for their own disposal, and about 250 of them use a simple crusher sold by White Rock’s Sybertech Waste Reduction Ltd., which collects the waste and ships it to a zinc smelter in Trail operated by Teck Resources Ltd. (TSX:TCK).
However, as of October 1, Product Care – provincially mandated to provide product stewardship for things like lights and electronics – will expand its program to accept CFLs and fluorescent tubes from industry, business and institutions.
But the association will continue to store and ship the bulbs whole, which makes little sense when they can be crushed first, said Sybertech president Rob Mitchell.
“They’re putting through this program where it’s free for disposal, but only whole bulbs, not crushed, and we’re asking why,” Mitchell told Business in Vancouver. “When this technology is here and 250 people in British Columbia already use it, why should they have go backwards and store all their bulbs?”
Sybertech’s Bulb Eater is a U.S.-made machine that grinds up CFLs and fluorescent tubes and separates out the mercury inside. The material is sent to Teck, where the glass, mercury and metal are all used in its smelting operations.
Bulbs and tubes collected by Product Care, meanwhile, are shipped across Canada.
“The CFLs are going all the way across the country, which is absurd,” Mitchell said “because we’ve got a facility right here in British Columbia.”
Jordan Best, senior program co-ordinator for Product Care, said when the program was set up in 2010, the Ontario recycler offered the best service.
“We went with the most cost-efficient service provider that was able to meet the program’s environmental standards. Those standards are very strict and not everyone was able to meet them in 2010.”
Best added that Product Care has issued a call for proposals to have the recycling done closer to home.
“We very much intend to be contracting B.C.-based processors for the expansion program.”
But even if the recycling is done in B.C., Mitchell said it makes no sense to truck the bulbs and tubes intact, when they can be ground up. He estimates it would take eight trucks to transport the same volume of tubes and bulbs that a single truck can carry when they have been crushed.
Roughly 250 businesses and institutions in B.C. already grind their spent bulbs and tubes using Bulb Eaters and contract Sybertech to pick up and deliver the waste. Product Care will continue to accept the crushed material, if commercial users prefer to go that route, but it will not have its collection depots do any of the crushing.
It’s not clear why Product Care is resistant to the idea of having the lights crushed on site, rather than shipping them whole.
“It’s a very messy debate,” Best said, “and, honestly, it’s not one that we’re interested in having.”
Fluorescent lights become brittle with age, and there are health concerns related to the mercury vapour released when they break while being transported.
A study by the
According to the 2009 study: “The results of this study suggest that most containers marketed for the shipment of used fluorescent lamps to recycling centres will not contain or limit exposure to mercury vapour from lamps during handling.” •
