In recent years, the use of energy-saving lamps in China has reached 200 million, but as of now, China's recycling system in this area is still blank, and hundreds of millions of waste energy-saving lamps are treated as ordinary household waste. On the eve of the two sessions of the National People's Congress, Lin Xuyi, deputy of the People's Congress of Zhuhai City, submitted a policy proposal: the establishment of an energy-saving lamp recycling mechanism to prevent mercury pollution. Studies have shown that an ordinary energy-saving lamp has a mercury content of about 5 milligrams. Since the boiling point of mercury is low, it can evaporate at room temperature. After the broken energy-saving lamp is broken, the concentration of mercury in the surrounding air can be exceeded by a factor of 100.

Hg pollution cannot be underestimated

Professor Tsinghua University’s Department of Physics has participated in the research and development of the first high-pressure helium gas in the country. He has studied the field of lighting. He stated that mercury in a waste energy-saving lamp penetrates the ground and can contaminate 1,800 tons of water. Once the mercury that enters the human body exceeds the standard, it will destroy the human central nervous system, and the human body can inhale 2.5 grams of mercury vapor once to cause death. I firmly believe that this worry is not worrying. According to its statistics, in 2006 China's scrapped mercury-containing lighting appliances equivalent to 40 million standard fluorescent lamps reached 1 billion, due to improper disposal of mercury released into the atmosphere as much as 70-80 tons, "This is a horrifying number."

Obviously, energy-saving lamps are also potentially huge potential for pollution while they are saving energy. Energy-saving lamps have been widely used in China in recent years. In 2009, 62 million energy-saving lamps were promoted nationwide. In 2009, the number of energy-saving lamps reached 120 million. However, according to industry estimates, the use of energy-saving lamps in China has reached 200 million. only. And China's energy-saving lamp recycling system is still blank. In the “New Catalogue of National Hazardous Waste Lists” promulgated by China in 2008, household waste fluorescent lamps were included in categories that could not be managed according to hazardous wastes. This means that the energy-saving lamps belonging to the same fluorescent lamp are also not targeted for harmless treatment. That is to say, the accelerated energy-saving lamps covered by hundreds of millions of energy-saving lamps may be treated as ordinary household waste after they have completed the energy-saving mission. Ecological invisible killer.

Technical and financial constraints

In fact, it is not a secret that energy-saving lamps contain mercury in the lighting industry. The project leader of a well-known energy-saving lamp manufacturer in China stated that even if they are large companies like them, energy-saving lamps can't do without mercury, let alone thousands of small and medium-sized enterprises. All the company can do is reduce the mercury content and convert the liquid mercury into solid mercury, so as to reduce the volatile pollution during the production process. According to incomplete statistics, there are nearly 2,000 energy-saving lamp production enterprises registered in China at present, and 2.4 billion energy-saving lamps are produced annually, accounting for more than 85% of the global market share.

Compared with the enthusiasm of aggressive national bidding plans, only three energy-saving lamp companies in China currently have recycling devices, which are all configured by the company. "General enterprises are sent to landfills for recycling because the cost of recycling is high and there is no subsidy, and waste energy-saving lamps are basically worthless for reuse," said one person in the business community.

According to its introduction, energy-saving lamps recycling production lines cost about 10 million yuan each, large enterprises generally need 2-3. A lighting industry veteran believes that “such a large investment, in the absence of relevant national policies and regulations, to take the initiative to carry out energy-saving lamp recycling treatment, I am afraid too difficult.” In fact, even if a small amount of energy into the recycling station The lights were only temporarily placed. The person in charge of Guangzhou First Waste Recycling Co., Ltd. frankly stated that they can accept energy-saving lamp recycling, but like other domestic waste treatment companies, they can only be sealed after recycling. “Toxicity of mercury in lamps is not currently available. The ones that have been dealt with can only be temporarily sealed, and they will not know what to do after increasing the amount.

Need to establish a sound and effective recycling mechanism

Liu Wei, an engineer in the Chemical Monitoring Laboratory at the Beijing Optical Power Research Center, admitted that “There is no assessment of the pollution of fluorescent lamps in China. The environmental protection department pays more attention to the pollution of food, home appliances, etc. It pays less attention to lighting and pays less attention to lighting.” One side is energy saving. Lamps are widely used. One side is potential cumulative pollution risks. Establishing effective recycling mechanisms has become an urgent task.

Lin Xuyi had investigated a number of energy-saving lamp companies and related industry associations at the stage of collecting motions. Most companies have stated that if the government supports subsidies, they can do recycling work. He also stressed that the government’s necessary restraint mechanism is indispensable. “The government must formulate relevant standards, just as the discharge of waste water and waste gas is strictly limited, and many companies dare not to deal with it.”

Chen Yansheng, chairman of the China Lighting Association, revealed that at present, China is considering the establishment of a "Recycling Code for Waste Gas Lights," but there is no timetable for its implementation. Many companies stated that the best way is for the government to establish a designated waste energy-saving lamp processing center. From these companies' perspectives, the biggest obstacle in the recycling system is not that companies do not take the initiative to do it. Instead, the recycling industry covers too many fields. Without a sound cooperation system and government guidance, it cannot be completed.