Students in Fairfax and Arlington counties will soon be selling toxic products as a PTA fundraiser … sort of.
On April 22, Earth Day, the Bright Futures Project of Fairfax and Arlington county schools launches a two-week drive to replace one incandescent bulb with one compact fluorescent light bulb for each child enrolled in those school systems — 167,000 bulbs in Fairfax County and 18,600 in Arlington.
The announcement declares, “Our students will help create a ‘bright future’ in northern Virginia by educating themselves and the public about the … benefits of switching from incandescent light bulbs to the far more energy-efficient CFLs.”
And then they’ll sell you the bulbs, making a profit of about $1.16 per bulb for programs generally not funded by the school systems. It’s a smart way to make a sale. Although each bulb saves $30 in energy costs, they’re much more expensive than ordinary bulbs, and, until the federal mandate requiring CFLs kicks in, they’re a tougher sell.
But there’s a “dark side” to this “bright future,” and because schools are educational institutions, the effort should be more than a “touchy-feely, save-the-planet-by-screwing-in-lightbulbs” program.
Bright Futures offers lots of lesson plans for educators to utilize in advocating use of the bulbs, but few ideas for teaching students about the balance between going green and using less energy on one hand and, conforming to increased waste disposal requirements on the other — not to mention the potential harm from improperly disposing of those CFLs, which contain toxic mercury.
One project might be to find out how hard it is to trash the bulbs when they die. Accordingto Fairfax County, “Disposal of intact CFLs is managed through the Fairfax County Household Hazardous Waste Program. Residents may simply bring their used CFLs to either of the Household Hazardous Waste facilities located in the county.”
But there’s nothing “simple” about trekking your burned-out bulbs to one of only two disposal sites. Lorton’s site is open three days a week, for a total of 16 hours a week; the Fairfax site is open four days for a total of 23 hours. Not exactly convenience.
How’s this student math project: How much gasoline does it take to throw out a compact fluorescent light bulb? Students can compute the miles from their home to the disposal site, the gallons of gasoline consumed and the air pollution created to throw out a lightbulb.
And, although Fairfax claims “a growing number of retailers accept CFLs for proper disposal,” students could call stores and find one. Two Home Depot stores said they have no such program. The customer service agent at Lowe’s said I could bring in my CFLs for disposal, adding, “We just throw them in the trash.”
Math project two: How many lightbulbs are tossed each year, and how long does it take before the amount of mercury becomes a potential issue?
Maybe that’s why the Bright Futures Web site announces in bold red: “No child may take bulbs home in a backpack, on a bus, etc.” Lightbulbs carried in backpacks tend to break, and when bulbs break, they become … well, unsafe.
If not, why would Fairfax County recommend that broken bulbs be disposed only after first opening the window and leaving the room for 15 minutes, wearing disposable gloves and using damp towels and sticky tape to pick up small pieces, sealing particles in two plastic bags, and never using a vacuum cleaner — all for one broken bulb?
Reducing energy use is a good thing, and we should aim for it at every chance we can. But as we learned with recent studies demonstrating that a massive shift to ethanol use would actually increase global warming because more forest and grasslands would be plowed up, there are unintended consequences to every good act.
If we want our children to become critical thinkers, we should make certain they understand both benefits and costs, and be ready to take on the added responsibilities.
Chris Braunlich is vice president of the Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy and is a former member of the Fairfax County Board of Education.
