What parts of a flashlight can be recycled?

How to make a homemade flashlight materials and procedure

The energy saving lamps have a part that nobody sees, HIGHLY RECYCLABLE, although in all the ecological booklets it is only mentioned that they must be disposed correctly when discarding it, since in its light tube there is phosphorus and mercury.

Almost certainly (it is only necessary to have a number of discarded lamps and test them) this circuit most of the time remains working, and what is exhausted is the tube (you can see the blackened ends, in this case), so that if we have in Argentina a lamp production industry willing to recover, the platelets (which I think must be an important part of the cost) could be reused.

How to make a homemade mini flashlight

Knowing how much of an LED bulb is actually being recycled is very complicated. The figures given by some and others do not coincide and always explain that these are very approximate averages and a process that they describe in thick strokes.

Ambilamp acknowledges: “100% of the materials from an LED bulb, after a recycling process, cannot be sent to processes where all the recovered fractions are used, given that many tested mechanical treatments produce plastics with metals that are very difficult to separate and recover later in other processes. These should be sent to energy recovery [incineration] or disposal processes”. The same organization gives an average: “The recycling percentage is 56% and a recovery percentage of 86%, which includes the fractions that are sent for energy recovery”.

Parts of a homemade flashlight

You might think that light bulbs, because they can contain glass components, go into the green garbage can, but this is not correct. Apart from glass, light bulbs have many other components that must be separated before being treated. That is why light bulbs should go to the clean point.

To facilitate this task and recycle this type of waste correctly, AMBILAMP (a non-profit association created with the aim of developing a system for the collection and treatment of this type of waste) also establishes other possible collection points for used light bulbs, where any citizen can take their exhausted bulbs. Normally, these points are located in electrical distributors or stores such as hardware stores, lighting stores or supermarkets, where any citizen can bring their spent light bulbs.

Specifically, these collection points focus on the collection of fluorescent bulbs, energy-saving bulbs, discharge bulbs, LEDS and used luminaires. You can access the search engine of these points through its website and find the nearest one.

How to make a homemade flashlight without batteries

– Do not use a vacuum cleaner or sweep up the remains of broken mercury lamps or tubes. When using the vacuum cleaner the mercury stays in the vacuum cleaner bag and evaporates progressively. Do not sweep it up either because the mercury “pellets” are dispersed all over the area, which increases the risk of inhalation.

– Carefully pick up the glass fragments and dust using stiff paper or cardboard in the form of a shovel and place them in a plastic bag that can be sealed and is not in danger of breaking. A glass jar with a metal lid will also work.

– Do not use a vacuum cleaner or sweep the remains of broken lamps or mercury tubes on hard surfaces. When using the vacuum cleaner the mercury stays in the vacuum cleaner bag and evaporates progressively. Sweeping is also not recommended because the mercury “pellets” are scattered all over the area.

– Carefully pick up the glass fragments and dust using stiff paper or cardboard in the form of a shovel and place them in a sealed plastic bag that is not at risk of breaking or a glass jar with a metal lid.