Determination of mercury in compact fluorescent lamps and survey of their waste management and disposal in Iran, and presenting of managing principals according to the innovative environmental and economical aspects
چکیده
Introduction: Currently, solid waste is one of the environmental concerns that needs to
suitable management. In the other hand recently, the new emerging solid waste such as Ewaste which includes compact fluorescent lamp (CFLs) became an important challenge.
In Iran, the CFLs have become a popular lighting choice instead of incandescent lamps,
which was due to payment of governmental subsidies, efforts of Ministry of Power, lower
energy consumption of CFLs and their longer life and lower retail price.
Currently, in Iran, there is no available and accurate information describing actual
practice of management and handling of waste of spent CFLs. In addition, the data
available to date on characteristics of CFLs, especially from heavy metal content
viewpoint and waste production rates are rare in Iran. Determining the amount of
mercury in CFLs was one of the key objectives of the present work. Another objective of
this study was to assess waste handling of CFLs and their final disposal. This study also
aimed to assess the existing policies on waste management of spent CFLs; in addition, it
had some practical recommendations about waste management of CFLs in Iran in order
to improve the current situation.
Materials and methods: In this study, the spent CFLs from 20 different brands (domestic
and international) that were being sold in Iran market were collected from various
household or office consumers. Then, contents of mercury was determined by inductively
coupled plasma-optical emission spectrophotometer (ICP-OES).
Waste resulting from obsolescence of CFLs was estimated by considering both domestic
production and imports minus the export of those lamps. The methodology used in this
study for estimating generation rate of spent CFLs was based on the data collected from
National Statistics Organization, Ministry of Industry and Mining. The amount of annual
CFLs (number/year) was estimated based on average mass of each CFL and average
lifespan assumptions for 2013-2020. A multilayer perception artificial neural network
using batch training method and gradient descent algorithm was used to predict
production of spent CFLs.36
To assess current management conditions, two provinces in the center and northwest of
Iran, Tehran and East Azerbaijan, respectively, were selected from among 31 provinces.
Assessment was then performed in cities of Tehran and Tabriz in the selected provinces.
A combination of methods was used to assess current management conditions. These
methods included completing checklists, site visits and observation, conversations with
authorities, using scientific databases and making contacts with municipalities, local and
national environmental protection agencies and other organizations.
Results: The results of study indicated that the average amount of mercury in CFLs was
0.419 mg/lamp (with maximum and minimum of 0.065-1.019 mg/lamp). The amount of
end of life fluorescent lamps are estimated about 163-174 million units CFLs for the year
2013 to 2020. Also, the amount of mercury entered to environment by spent CFLs in
2013 estimated 74.88 kg.
Conclusion: In the present time there are not cost effective and also energy-efficient
alternatives to CFLs. Therefore the amount of CFLs waste is increasing dramatically in
Iran, as it is in most other countries. Currently the disposal of spent CFLs is being carried
out with municipal solid waste stream, which (in spite of reduction of mercury content in
new CFLs) can impose great health and environmental concerns. In the meantime the
disposed spent compact fluorescent lamps are the valuable source of some material such
as glass tubing, metal end caps and mercury. Therefore, to protect of environment and
public health, there is urgent need for the implementation of a practical legislation
dealing specifically with CFLs waste, the applying of EPR program (with advance
recycling fee) and allocation of funds to prepare suitable equipment and facilities for the
suitable collecting and recycling of CFLs in the Iran.