Spent the weekend converting the garage from the automobile-engine-overhaul business back to normal suburban garage-full-of-junk and cars. Almost all done, everything put away, floor swept, just need to deal with the cat's litter box. Grab the trash can to carry it outside and behind my back there is this explosive crash. Oh, poop, what was that? There were three four foot long fluorescent tubes leaning against the wall behind the trash can. Now there are only two. The third has managed to spread itself over the entire floor.
I put those three bulbs there some time ago. They have been waiting for me to come up with some nice, clean method of getting rid of them. (I wonder what happened to the fourth.) They are too long to fit in the garbage can, and if I just stick them in there I am sure they will get broken before they make it to the garbage truck and will no doubt spread glass shards hither and yon.
Well, we've got one big mess now, might as well finish off the other two and be done with it. Get a paper grocery sack, stick one end of one of the unbroken bulbs and wack it with a baseball bat. Surprising tough these bulbs, but the bat does the trick. Slide another foot or so of unbroken bulb into the bag and repeat until it is all smashed to smithereens. Repeat for other bulb. Sweep up the mess. Sweep some more. Sweep it all again. Doesn't seem to be any end to these little glass shards.
Eight foot fluorescent bulbs are considered hazardous waste, at least in my jurisdiction: they contain too much mercury. Four foot bulbs are not hazardous waste. They are under the limit. We are talking tiny fractions of a gram here. From Wikipedia: The amount of mercury in a fluorescent lamp varies from 3 to 46 mg, depending on lamp size and age. There was a noticable amount of white powder on the floor from the broken bulb. This is the fluorescent part. The stuff from modern lamps, i.e. any lamps made in the last 60 years, is not poisonous.
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