Gadgetory

whoops you just broke a CFL light bulb in your kitchen and now that mercury trapped inside is exposed into your home how do you safely clean that up how do you get rid of that broken bulb I'm seeing that's right Chris don't worry I'm going to show you how right away after breaking that bulb the first thing you're going to want to do is to air out that part of your home that means opening up the windows closing doors off to other parts of the home getting pets out of there all of that and then just taking about 15 minutes to let things air out you also want to be sure you turn off your central air conditioning you don't want that system pulling the mercury up into your house and distributing it everywhere that's just not good after the rooms been airing out for 15 minutes it's safe to go back in and clean the mess up now keep in mind the amount of mercury in a CFL bulb is only about 1% what you'll find in a thermometer so it's not that much of a safety hazard still you want to be careful you want to take it seriously if you have a mask it might be a good idea to wear one I'd probably wear one if I had one now keep in mind as you're cleaning up that everything that touches that broken mess is going to be contaminated with the mercury so you don't want to use a broom you don't want to use your vacuum cleaner either because like the AC system that's going to kick the particles up into the air what you want to do is scoop that mess up with a piece of paper or a piece of cardboard and get it into a sealable container a glass jar with a metal lid is your best bet but if you don't have that you can use Tupperware you can use a plastic bag less ideal but they'll work you also want to make sure that you throw that piece of paper or cardboard away in that container you want to seal all that contaminated stuff up together after you've gotten the big chunks up you can use a piece of duct tape just to get the rest of the powder in the glass up and like the piece of paper make sure you throw that used tape into your contaminated bag once you've got mostly everything up the final step to cleaning it is to take a damp paper towel or a wet wipe and just go over the area just make sure it's nice and clean looking that you've got every particle that you can see up and under your towel and into that bag congratulations you have cleaned up that broken bulb and gotten it into a sealed container and at this point you're going to want to wash your hands but you've got this sealed container now filled with mercury contaminated glass water and tape what do you do with that well you can take it to a recycling center in your town and they'll probably take it off your at the appropriate place here in Louisville we can only recycle a broken bulb on Wednesdays and Saturdays which isn't terribly convenient if you break a bulb on a Sunday so there you have next time you break a CFL in your home you'll know how to clean it up safely and how to get rid of those broken pieces responsibly that sounds like too much work I recommend replacing that CFL with a bulb it doesn't have mercury like an LED CNET I'm right Chris