Living plastic free: CFL Light Bulbs #2
I know, I know…you’re thinking…'EnviroWoman haven’t you already found plastic-free CFL bulbs by NOMA that come packaged in cardboard rather than that annoying and uber-evil blisterpak stuff.'
Well, I said it once, I’ll say it again….life is full of ironies. And this is another one of them.
And we’re not talking an itsy-bitsy-paramecium-sized irony. We’re talking a big, honkin’ Godzilla- Meets-Tyrannosaurus-Rex-sized irony – the Sequel.
Yup, get ready for it….you know what’s coming….CFL light bulbs contain plastic.
Yup, even the one’s that come packaged in cardboard.
Sad but true, there’s a big, bad wad of plastic at the base of each bulb. Disguised to look like porcelain…but evil plastic to the core.
And EnviroWoman cannot take any credit for making this discovery. Nope. It’s a fact Jack. Her brain capacity can really be quite itsy-bitsy-paramecium-sized at times....as she is so humbly discovering through this whole no-new-plastic year.
‘Cuz it wasn’t until Kevin commented on EnviroWoman’s blog about CFL bulbs containing plastic that EnviroWoman had the ‘No Sh#@ Sherlock’ revelation. As soon as Kevin's words registered with EnviroWoman's defective synapses she leapt from her laptop, made a bee-line for the storgage closet, delved into the stash of unopened CFL bulbs she had bought just days before, peeked inside the box….and there it was…plastic.
Crap, crap, and triple crap. Absolutely unbelievable!
But believe it just the same. NOMA’s CFL bulb is a veritable wolf in sheep’s clothing.
Plastic in something so eco-friendly. Ironic isn’t it? And guess what….they all have plastic bases, even the CFL bulbs packaged in blisterpak. A little plastic-zone in the CFL end-zone.
By now you’re probably thinking…'Holy crap, EnviroWoman is gonna have to commit a whole new category of eco-sin afterall, and buy the lowly standard light bulb.’
And the answer to that would be…does the Pope have a balcony?
Indeedy my sweetie, EnviroWoman headed back to Canadian Tire with her eco-tail between her eco-legs, so she could exchange her NOMA bulbs for plain old General Electric LongLife General Purpose light bulbs (with no iota of plastic in them.)
You do know what this means? When EnviroWoman peruses all those 10 Things you Can Do to Save the Planet lists she’s not going to be able to proudly proclaim ‘Check, got that one covered’ for all ten items, because Switch to CFL bulbs is on every one of those lists.
Rather, to avoid committing a plastic SIN, she must commit an eco-SIN.
Doesn’t that just drive a plastic stake through EnviroWoman’s little green heart.
Oh well, let’s look on the bright side….by not buying CFL bulbs, at least she won’t be contributing to any mercury leaching into her local landfill.
Lessons Learned:
- Assume nothing. Peek inside the box. Even though you look like a freak opening every lightbulb, toothpaste, and face cream package (just to name a few) to check if the contents contain any plastic…ya got to. When you make an eco-pledge, looking like a freak comes with the territory.
Comments
what about locally produced
what about locally produced soy milk?
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Jan I have not gone off the
Jan
I have not gone off the deep end. The pledge is 'no-new-plastic'. The rules do not include 'unless the alternative is not earth friendly', only a rule that says 'unless the alternative requires me to break the cruelty-free pledge' (i.e. shoes for exception).
Yes I already know the whole coal-fired plant electricity issue. Let's face it, we call the CFL 'earth-friendly' but it's not really. The combination of mercury and plastic have long term negative effects on the planet and is another fine example of how marketers tell us 'this one is better'...when in reality it is on some levels, but not all.
I stand by my decision to not buy CFL bulbs, until the manufacturers stop using plastic in them - or start using bioplastics.
Plastic free. Cruelty free. Vegetarian. Chocoholic
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Wow! My name in lights! The
Wow! My name in lights!
The whole eco-tradeoffs thing can get very confusing very quickly: is plastic and mercury worse than high energy consumption? Are candle emissions worse than hydroelectric powered lights?... and let's face it, the sun is the only completely ecological light source.
Having a principle to stick by helps a lot in making these decisions so they don't become overwhelming.
k
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I think you've gone off the
I think you've gone off the deep end here. Life is rife with trade-offs -- do I buy local milk and forego veganism, or buy the soy milk that was trucked in from California?
As a useful compromise, I'd search long and hard to find CFBs that have a replaceable bulb. They are available, and yes, they do contain plastic, but that plastic will remain in use for much longer than the throw-away CFBs that put plastic (and mercury) in a landfill when the bulb part burns out.
(BTW: if you have coal-fired electricity, the amount of mercury kept out of the environment by using a CFB rather than an incandescent is greater than the 5mg or so of mercury in the CFB. Not only that, but the coal-fired power plant disperses its mercury widely, whereas a responsible consumer will see that the CFB is disposed as hazardous waste.)