State of Maine and CFLs

The state of Maine recently passed an act (LD 973) to improve recycling of all fluorescent lights (including CFLs) and stipulate maximum mercury content.

Here's the Summary from the act:

This bill requires each manufacturer of mercury-added lamps to implement a mercury-added lamp recycling program for the recycling of the mercury-added lamps sold or distributed in the State for household use. It authorizes the Department of Environmental Protection to adopt mercury content standards established for lamps sold in the European Union pursuant to the RoHS directive¹. It directs the Department of Administrative and Financial Services to prefer lamps with the lowest possible mercury content when making purchasing decisions. It requires the Department of Environmental Protection to submit a report by January 1, 2010 to the Joint Standing Committee on Natural Resources on the recycling of mercury-added lamps from businesses, and it authorizes the committee to submit legislation to implement the recommendations in the report.

This act effectively stipulates a limit of 5mg of mercury for a CFL sold in Maine. EPA Energy Star standards call for voluntary commitment to a level of 5 mg for CFLs under 25W and 6 mg for higher wattages.

1. Directive 2002/95/EC, adopted by the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union on January 27, 2003