Not all cabbages are green

Not all cabbages are green

Despite their high price, "green" light bulbs or energy saving bulbs have become popular. In China, they now light up millions of households.

But suddenly, these bulbs are apparently the alleged cause of a high level of mercury. Still, governments and manufacturers have not come up with measures to cope with this mercury pollution. Only in Guangdong province, the government has subsidized rates in a way to promote the use of 8 million of these green bulbs. A practical and effective system must be urgently established to recycle this massive amount of bulbs. If the used bulbs are not recycled, said Liu Hong, an expert in energy research, "more than 117 million tons of water will be polluted" in Guangzhou alone this year. According to Liu's statistics, a single energy-saving bulb contains 0.5 mg of mercury, enough to pollute 180 tons of water. If the used bulbs are buried, the soil will be contaminated as well.