Air Cycle Blog
Welcome to the Air Cycle Corp blog! Here you can find the latest industry and company news, read expert opinions on a variety of topics, and see other unique items that catch our attention. Feel free to join the conversation!
How Not to Crush Spent Light Bulbs...
While safely crushing and storing spent fluorescent bulbs--and the mercury they contain--can be easy and cost-effective with Air Cycle's Bulb Eater®, there are a few methods of light bulb crushing that should be avoided...
The Bulb Eater® contains 99.99% of mercury vapors released during crushing, well below the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) acceptable standard for mercury exposure, while reducing recycling labor and storage requirements.
Learn more » Bulb Eater® lamp crusher
New NY Rechargeable Battery Recycling Law
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New York law went into effect earlier this month that requires manufacturers to collect and recycle rechargeable batteries and bans disposal of such batteries in landfills. The new regulation was signed into law in December of last year and took effect on December 5 of this year. The law also requires recycling for laptop, camera, and cell phone batteries.
EasyPak™ mail-in containers make recycling batteries simple. Time-saving EasyPak features include prepaid shipping, online, official Certificates of Recycling, and optional
Sustainable Program automatic reordering.
Learn more » EasyPak™ recycling containers
Congress Delays Incandescent Light Bulb Ban
While many facility managers have already phased out incandescent light bulbs in favor of energy-saving fluorescent lamps, any remaining incandescent bulbs will be allowed to remain in use for now, according to
this article from the Chicago Tribune. Facility managers who have yet to make the switch in preparation for the ban will have until September 30, 2012, when the reprieve will end.
How it Works: The Lamp Recycling Process
Ever wonder what happens to all those spent lamps that are shipped from facilities via a Bulb Eater® drum or EasyPak™ container? I did, and learned that in recycling they undergo quite a process of transformation into raw materials for reuse!
First, upon arrival at the recycling center, lamps are automatically fed into pressurized processing machines (which prevent mercury from escaping into the air), while the Bulb Eater drum or EasyPak container is recycled or reused. Next, byproducts like phosphor powder are separated from the glass and metal components, which are stored for reuse. Finally, the mercury is safely isolated and extracted from the other materials. The components are now ready to be turned back into a fluorescent lamp or other product!
The Bulb Eater® lamp crusher and EasyPak™ mail-in containers make it simple and cost-effective to recycle lamps and other wastes like ballasts, batteries, and electronics, and include time-saving features like visual Recycling Reports and official online Certificates of Recycling.
Learn more » Air Cycle recycling solutions
Newsweek Ranks CBRE 2011 Greenest Real Estate Firm
Newsweek, in its annual Green Rankings, rated CBRE Group, Inc. the greenest real estate company of 2011, according to an article in RealEstateRama. The Green Rankings list measures the environmental performance--based on environmental impact, management and disclosure--of the 500 largest publicly traded companies based in the U.S. This is the fourth year in a row that CBRE has won the top spot among real estate firms.
Air Cycle Corporation is proud to support the green efforts of CBRE by providing simple and cost-effective waste recycling solutions and tracking tools for spent fluorescent lamps, ballasts, batteries, and electronic waste.
New Department of Energy Lamp Ballast Standards
In conjunction with the upcoming phase-out of incandescent light bulbs in 2012, the Department of Energy (DOE) has issued revised energy conservation standards for fluorescent lamp ballasts, according to
this article from Enviro.BLR.com.
The new standards take effect in January of next year and require increased ballast luminous efficiency (BLE), defined as the ratio of total lamp arc power to ballast input power. According to DOE, the revised requirements will help produce significant energy and monetary savings, resulting in reductions in emissions of pollutants.
