rachel123
Registered: May 2009
City/Town/Province: lake worth
Posts: 1
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Team Name: Renewzzle
School: Park Vista Community High School
Adviser: Kerry Grayson
In order to make our decision in improving our community around us, we contacted several environmental agencies to see what the group could do for the area. By calling the Solid Waste Authority of Florida and South Florida Water management district, speaking to chemists and principals of schools around Palm Beach County, the group made a decision to recycle fluorescent light bulbs. We then named our project, Fluorescent Frenzy.
During our project, we will be able to evaluate the effectiveness of recycling fluorescent light bulbs by monitoring the amount we get in each week from the small businesses and if they have begun a recycling program from our influences. By the end of the project, we should be able to see our neighbors putting them aside for recycling, and not in the garbage.
Our group will initially begin collecting from small business and residential areas. Large business such as Office Max and Home Depot have their fluorescent collected and recycled by Hazmat or a third party. Our objective is to prevent the larger amount of smaller business and residential areas from throwing away these toxic filled light bulbs. Although they do cut down cost for electricity and are energy efficient, they contain mercury which cannot be incinerated in most waste generated plants. Thus, we will go around to different businesses giving them information about the harmful effects of throwing away these light bulbs and set up a day to come back and pick up ones they have changed out. We will then collect them in our material storage lab at school and in March take them down to the only one location in Palm Beach County where they can be disposed of. For this to work efficiently, we must give the businesses leeway of 2 months, in order for them to have changed their light bulbs. Another part of the project is teaching the people about fluorescent and how to recycle them. We will schedule a meeting at the local library open to the public about the effects, programs, and recycling institutions for fluorescent light bulbs. We will split into groups of 2 or 3 and go to residential communities, mainly door to door, passing out information and a collection date for the light bulbs at the front of their community. This will not only get a recycling program established, it will also teach the population around us.
One of the reasons why we have to start this program is because there are few stations in Palm Beach County that will actually take fluorescent light bulbs due to their disposing complexity. Unfortunately, the majority of the population that uses these in their homes and businesses just throw them out; it is a long drive to the facility, and it would be easier if they were to put them in the dumpster behind their office.
The outcome of this project was successful. We were able to teach others around us something new to do for the environment, creatively. Hopefully, in the future Palm Beach County will be influenced on our recycling program and start it in places that doesn’t have one yet, like communities or small business owners. The next step to take would be to continue informing our community about these types of bulbs and encourage a permanent recycling program instituted by the government.
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