Following a review of its environmental practices, the University of Hertfordshire has teamed up with Mercury Recycling for safe and effective disposal of its discharge light sources. One of the reasons Mercury was selected was for its ability to recycle or re-use 99.75% by weight of the lamp – including the recovery of mercury in the lamps – a much higher percentage than the majority of lamp disposal contractors.The University has a comprehensive environmental policy and was also impressed with Mercury's storage containers, used while the lamps are awaiting collection. "The Lampsafe containers provided by Mercury ensure that the used lamps are stored safely and there is no risk of environmental contamination," said the University's Environmental Engineer Dr Vall Rasaratnam.
Following recent changes in legislation, discharge light sources such as fluorescent, sodium, metal halide and mercury lamps are now classified as hazardous waste. When the WEEE (Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment) Directive is implemented it will become compulsory to recycle these lamps.
Once collected, the used lamps are taken to Mercury's reprocessing facility in Manchester, the largest Lamp Recycling Plant in the UK. Here they are broken down into components for further recycling. This includes distilling mercury from the phosphors in the lamps at temperatures of around 800°C to reclaim pure liquid mercury. Mercury is one of the very few companies in the UK able to provide the distillation and recycling of mercury which can then be re-used in a wide range of applications which includes the manufacture of new lamps by two major lamp producers.
