Among the largest issues besetting bottled water is plastic waste. According to the Container Recycling Institute, in 2002 some 14 billion water bottles were sold in the United States, 90 percent of which were thrown in the trash--even though most of them were made of recyclable PET plastic.

However, did you know that the CFL light bulbs contain trace elements of mercury that may affect the nervous system if not used or handled properly? Mercury was used in history to cure ills, process felt fiber, fill teeth, make thermometers, medical equipment, and light bulbs work better. Today mercury is being phased out in medicine, dentistry and other applications, because it has been discovered that mercury is toxic.

The Town of Bethlehem accepts spent fluorescent and compact fluorescent light bulbs and old thermometers at the Bethlehem Highway Garage daily during normal working hours, 7:00am to 4:30pm. or at Town Hall where a box is located near the Town Clerk's office; please note, this box is for spent compact fluorescent light (CFL) bulbs only. We also accept these items during household hazardous waste programs. Please keep them in a box or bag or their original container. These items are categorized as “universal waste” which allows the Town to accept these items at all times.

Some big retailers are promoting compact fluorescent light bulbs as a way to save energy. But improper disposal of the bulbs creates a hazard, because they contain small amounts of mercury.

Recycling them is about to get easier. Home Depot, the nation’s second-largest retailer, will announce on Tuesday that it will take back old compact fluorescents in all 1,973 of its stores in the United States, creating the nation’s most widespread recycling program for the bulbs.

“We kept hearing from the community that there was a little bit of concern about mercury in the C.F.L.’s,” said Ron Jarvis, Home Depot’s senior vice president for environmental innovation, using the industry abbreviation for the bulbs. “And if the C.F.L.’s were in their house, how could they dispose of them?”

Until now, consumers had to seek out local hazardous waste programs or smaller retail chains willing to collect the bulbs for recycling, like Ikea and True Value. Some consumers have waited for retailers like Wal-Mart to have a designated recycling day. Others bought kits to mail the bulbs to a recycling facility.

The Environmental Protection Agency has been looking into putting bulb drop-off boxes at post offices, said Jim Berlow, director of the agency’s hazardous waste minimization and management division.

But those plans are not final, and across most of the country, recycling the bulbs has been inconvenient at best. Industry professionals estimate that the recycling rate is around 2 percent.

Home Depot’s program, which will accept any maker’s bulbs, will bring relatively convenient recycling within reach of most households. Mr. Jarvis estimated that 75 percent of the nation’s homes are within 10 miles of a Home Depot.

“We’re trying to do the right thing,” he said. “Some of the things that we do are for the community and not for the bottom line.”

Both Home Depot and Wal-Mart, the nation’s largest retailer, have vigorously promoted the bulbs as part of their commitment to the environment. Wal-Mart announced in October 2006 that it wanted to sell 100 million compact fluorescents by the end of 2007. It surpassed that goal, selling 193 million bulbs to date.

Wal-Mart has accepted expired bulbs at take-back events in particular markets and is exploring how to do it consistently on a national level. Wal-Mart has more than twice the number of United States stores as Home Depot.

The need for a national recycling program became apparent to Home Depot as sales of compact fluorescents, which had been slow compared with sales of incandescent bulb, climbed to 75 million last year, from about 50 million in 2006. And a recycling program is likely to drive even more people to Home Depot.

“We haven’t really had to develop the infrastructure” before now, said Steven Hamburg, interim director of the Center for Environmental Studies at Brown University. “The demand wasn’t there.” But lately, consumers have been getting the message — in stores, from the media and through awareness campaigns — that compact fluorescents use up to 75 percent less energy, last longer and cost less over time than incandescent bulbs.

Mr. Hamburg says the average household reduces its energy budget by $12 to $20 a month using compact fluorescents. Additionally, better technology has made the bulbs’ harsh glow somewhat warmer and softer, though many people still object to it.

More innovations are on the way. Home Depot has plans to introduce more dimmable compact fluorescents within the year. Mr. Hamburg and colleagues at Brown recently developed a box that absorbs mercury — so there would be no need to fret if a bulb breaks in the box.

Mercury is found in other common household items like electronics, appliances and pesticides. Its vapors, however, can harm people and pollute the environment, which is why recycling is encouraged. (In some places it is against the law not to recycle the bulbs.)

“We generally think using these bulbs are over all a good thing for the environment,” said Mr. Berlow of the E.P.A. “The only thing you have to be aware of is the potential for them to break.”

The E.P.A. devotes pages of its Web site to cleanup instructions for broken compact fluorescents. Before even beginning to clean up a spill, consumers are advised to leave the room (along with their pets), open a window and shut off any operating air heating or cooling systems.

That may seem foreboding, but experts see a greater health risk from the mercury emissions produced by coal-burning plants to power less efficient bulbs.

“The avoided mercury emissions are much larger than the mercury we’re using in the bulbs,” said Mr. Hamburg of Brown, referring to compact fluorescents.

Home Depot’s bulbs contain 2.3 to 3.5 milligrams of mercury, which is below the National Electrical Manufacturers Association recommendation of 5 milligrams or fewer. It is a small amount, equivalent to the volume of the steel ball in the tip of a ballpoint pen. “Most people in their home have 1,000 times more mercury literally in their thermostat, let alone thermometers,” Mr. Hamburg said.

Before Clean-up: Air Out the Room

Have people and pets leave the room, and don't let anyone walk through the breakage area on their way out.
Open a window and leave the room for 15 minutes or more.
Shut off the central forced-air heating/air conditioning system, if you have one.

Clean-Up Steps for Hard Surfaces

Carefully scoop up glass pieces and powder using stiff paper or cardboard and place them in a glass jar with metal lid (such as a canning jar) or in a sealed plastic bag.
Use sticky tape, such as duct tape, to pick up any remaining small glass fragments and powder.
Wipe the area clean with damp paper towels or disposable wet wipes. Place towels in the glass jar or plastic bag.
Do not use a vacuum or broom to clean up the broken bulb on hard surfaces.

Clean-up Steps for Carpeting or Rug

Carefully pick up glass fragments and place them in a glass jar with metal lid (such as a canning jar) or in a sealed plastic bag.
Use sticky tape, such as duct tape, to pick up any remaining small glass fragments and powder.
If vacuuming is needed after all visible materials are removed, vacuum the area where the bulb was broken.
Remove the vacuum bag (or empty and wipe the canister), and put the bag or vacuum debris in a sealed plastic bag.

Clean-up Steps for Clothing, Bedding and Other Soft Materials

If clothing or bedding materials come in direct contact with broken glass or mercury-containing powder from inside the bulb that may stick to the fabric, the clothing or bedding should be thrown away. Do not wash such clothing or bedding because mercury fragments in the clothing may contaminate the machine and/or pollute sewage.
You can, however, wash clothing or other materials that have been exposed to the mercury vapor from a broken CFL, such as the clothing you are wearing when you cleaned up the broken CFL, as long as that clothing has not come into direct contact with the materials from the broken bulb.
If shoes come into direct contact with broken glass or mercury-containing powder from the bulb, wipe them off with damp paper towels or disposable wet wipes. Place the towels or wipes in a glass jar or plastic bag for disposal.

Disposal of Clean-up Materials

Immediately place all clean-up materials outdoors in a trash container or protected area for the next normal trash pickup.
Wash your hands after disposing of the jars or plastic bags containing clean-up materials.
Check with your local or state government about disposal requirements in your specific area. Some states do not allow such trash disposal. Instead, they require that broken and unbroken mercury-containing bulbs be taken to a local recycling center.
Future Cleaning of Carpeting or Rug: Air Out the Room During and After Vacuuming

The next several times you vacuum, shut off the central forced-air heating/air conditioning system and open a window before vacuuming.
Keep the central heating/air conditioning system shut off and the window open for at least 15 minutes after vacuuming is completed.

After implementing his tyrannical rule over Russia in the October Revolution, Lenin issued a Decree on Land within his first year as Communist Party chairman. The decree declared that all forests, waters and minerals were property of the state.

Lenin also issued the decree “On Hunting Seasons and the Right to Possess Hunting Weapons,” which banned hunting moose and wild goats and ended open seasons for a variety of other animals.

Another resolution adopted by the Soviet government titled “On the Protection of Nature, Gardens, and Parks” established zapovedniki, or human-free nature preserves.

Despite the poverty of the people under Soviet rule, Lenin decided that it better served the national interest to place the rich natural resources of the area beyond human reach. - WND

Much to our dismay, we now find that the self-styled hippie guru and alleged murderer of Holly Maddux, Ira Einhorn, has been taking credit for initiating and/or organizing Earth Day. He is not telling the truth. A group of very dedicated young people worked very hard to organize Earth Day, but Einhorn was not one of them. In fact, Einhorn was asked to leave several meetings of the organizing committee which he attempted to disrupt. He was not welcome there, nor did he contribute in any material way to the committee’s activities. Einhorn, given a small role on the stage at Earth Day, grabbed the microphone and refused to give up the podium for thirty minutes, thinking he would get some free television publicity. We just waited until he had completed his "act" and then got on to the serious business at hand, the keynote speech of U.S. Senator Edmund Muskie, author of the landmark U.S. Clean Air Act of 1970.

On the very day that Gaylord Perry intimated his plan for Earth Day the faculty and students of our department sent a telegram committing our participation. A committee was formed headed by a young hydrologist and regional planner from Vanderbilt, Austan Librach. Soon an executive director was hired, a lawyer and city planner Ed Furia. The king of Philidelphia hippies, Ira Einhorn joined the group and played a major role.

In fact, Einhorn was asked to leave several meetings of the organizing committee which he attempted to disrupt. He was not welcome there, nor did he contribute in any material way to the committee’s activitie.

Last week PJM Interconnection, the company that operates the electric grid for 13 states...held its 2015 capacity auction. These are the first real, market prices that take Obama’s most recent anti-coal regulations into account, and they prove that he is keeping his 2008 campaign promise to make electricity prices “necessarily skyrocket.”

The market-clearing price for new 2015 capacity – almost all natural gas – was $136 per megawatt. That’s eight times higher than the price for 2012, which was just $16 per megawatt. [new capacity, not total capacity - B] In the mid-Atlantic area covering New Jersey, Delaware, Pennsylvania, and DC the new price is $167 per megawatt. For the northern Ohio territory served by FirstEnergy, the price is a shocking $357 per megawatt.

Why the massive price increases? Andy Ott from PJM stated the obvious: “Capacity prices were higher than last year's because of retirements of existing coal-fired generation resulting largely from environmental regulations which go into effect in 2015.” Northern Ohio is suffering from more forced coal-plant retirements than the rest of the region, hence the even higher price.

These are not computer models or projections or estimates. These are the actual prices that electric distributors have agreed to pay for new capacity. The costs will be passed on to consumers at the retail level.

House Energy and Power Subcommittee Chairman Ed Whitfield (R-Ky.) aptly explained: “The PJM auction forecasts a dim future where Americans will be paying more to keep the lights on. We are seeing more and more coal plants fall victim to EPA’s destructive regulatory agenda, and as a result, we are seeing more job losses and higher electricity prices.”

The only thing that can stop this massive price hike now is an all-out effort to end Obama’s War on Coal and repeal this destructive regulatory agenda.

The Senate will have a critical opportunity to do just that when it votes on stopping Obama’s most expensive anti-coal regulation sometime in the next couple of weeks. The vote is on the Inhofe Resolution, S.J. Res 37, to overturn the so-called Utility MACT rule, which the EPA itself acknowledges is its most expensive rule ever.

This vote is protected from filibuster, and it will take just 51 votes to send a clear message to Obama that his War on Coal must end.

Of course, Obama could veto the resolution and keep the rule intact, although that would force him to take full political responsibility for the massive impending jump in electricity prices. [but what does he care, those hikes would take place in his lame duck term - B]

Kerpen got it right at the start – the Energy Information Administration has reported a dramatic drop in coal-fired generation in West Virginia – from 44.6 percent last year to nearly 36 percent of generation in this quarter.

Kerpen's story focuses on an announcement from PJM Interconnection, the company that operates the electric grid for Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia and the District of Columbia. The announcement regarded the results of its capacity auction.

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He goes on to state that northern Ohio will suffer even more.

All of that information is correct. He again rightly points out that they are prices paid by electric distributors for new capacity, not models or projects. The next statement – that "the costs will be passed on to consumers at the retail level" may not be untrue, but does gloss over a quote in the same news release Kerpen mined for the prior Ott quote:

Ott noted that the 2015 capacity prices' overall effect on retail consumers' electricity rates is expected to be moderated by other factors. "Capacity is a fairly small component of the retail price of electricity, and the cost of capacity at the retail level tends to be averaged out over several years," Ott explained. "In addition, if natural gas prices remain low, that would tend to restrain retail electricity prices."

Basically, the cost the consumer pays involves more than simple contract prices paid to generators. While there is a legitimate argument that current conditions discourage burning coal, there is also the problem of cheap and currently abundant shale gas resources competing for the same market share as coal.

While replacing coal with some renewables is not necessarily immediately cost-effective, natural gas plants can currently heavily compete with coal plants. It's also notable that many coal-fired plants were near retirement anyway due to age, inefficiency or both compared to natural gas or modern coal plants.

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It's not to say recent environmental regulations have not cost the industry – but it remains unclear just how much it will cost consumers. Answering that question involves a number of externalities with answers that vary depending on who you ask.