Most of us turn on the lights at some point in every day; however, the light bulbs that we grew up turning on are soon to be banned from being sold. Starting next January, a new regulation will come into effect that bans the sale of incandescent light bulbs which follows similar regulations implemented by other places in the world such as the European Union. Replacing the regular bulbs are the more energy efficient light bulbs like light emitting diodes (LEDs) and compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs). These new bulbs are supposed to last longer and use less energy thus saving a typical consumer money in the long term and supposedly helping the environment as well.

An incandescent light bulb and a compact fluorescent light

You may be wondering: so what is the big deal about this change? Aside from the higher initial cost for the bulbs, Canada is unprepared for most of these energy efficient light bulbs because many contain mercury: an extremely toxic chemical and neurotoxin that most advertisements and companies won’t tell you about. Mercury waste facilities are almost non-existent meaning that many of these new bulbs would end up in landfills where they could potentially enter water streams. While there is only a small amount of mercury in each light bulb (up to 5 milligrams), if you consider how many each household requires it is truly concerning the environmental danger that these bulbs can bring when they end up in landfills in large numbers.

“Environment Canada says the mercury contained in a typical thermometer can contaminate five Olympic-size swimming pools to toxic levels.” – Globe and Mail

Clearly Canada is not ready for this change. I believe that this regulation needs to be put on hold until there are facilities or a plan in place, such as a “bottle-return” system, that can be used to store or dispose of these toxic containing light bulbs in a safe manner. Canada could look at the EU’s Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive (WEEE Directive) for an idea on how to deal with this problem while making sure consumers are aware of the danger of these new bulbs through advertising and labels so that these bulbs end up helping the environment rather than harming it.