1. I currently dispose of my fluorescent tubes in a skip, is this okay?
   There are a number of issues here. Firstly there is the threat to the environment by placing mercury bearing wastes into a skip destined for landfill. Secondly the Hazardous Waste Regulations 2005 states that the entire skip-load must be consigned as hazardous waste. Not only does this greatly increase your disposal costs but also makes it harder to landfill as there are only a handful of sites licensed to accept it. The forthcoming WEEE directive will make it mandatory to have spent tubes and discharge lamps recycled.
   
   
2. Can I buy, or use a Sub-Contractor's crushing machine?
   Yes you can although there are several points needing consideration. The processing of Hazardous Waste, ie crushing lamps and tubes, requires the appropriate permit or licence. This has to be obtained by the 'occupier' of the premises. Crushing lamps presents obvious hazards such as broken glass, phosphor dust and toxic mercury vapour. Occupational Health guidelines require you to provide COSHH assessments to ensure staff, and the surrounding areas, do not encounter long term low level mercury contamination. When associated costs such as energy, labour, filtration media, provision of PPE, urine mercury level monitoring and subsequent disposal charges are considered, alongside the initial purchase costs, you will find using an accredited recycler such as ourselves a much more cost-effective and user friendly solution.
   
   
3. How do you charge us?
   We can match or beat any like for like quotation, whether you require a price per lamp or container load. Certain lamp recyclers prefer to charge by the container load. When large bulbous discharge lamps are mixed with linear fluorescent tubes it creates 'air-pockets'; effectively meaning you are paying to dispose of fresh air!. We invoice for recycling after collection (excluding our Lampsafe and Bulbsafe services) unlike some other recyclers.
   
   
4. How do I know if my lamps are truly recycled?
   Many firms who claim to be 'lamp recyclers' are either just logistics companies or operate crushing machinery. Mercury Recycling use state of the art British technology to recover all elements of the lamps and use in-house distillation equipment to reclaim the toxic mercury from the phosphor powder. Once recovered this mercury is re-used in a variety of industries, including the manufacture of new lamps. We believe this to be an example of 'truly recycling'.
   
   
5. What is hazardous waste premises registration?
   Every company in England and Wales (for exemptions please see Environment Agency website) must register with the EA if they produce over 200Kg of Hazardous waste per year cumulatively. Typical examples are 500 fluorescent tubes or 10 computer monitors. We are able to register our clients sites, for a small admin fee, where required. Each site must re-register every 12 months if applicable. 
   
   
6. Will you take crushed or broken lamps?
   We appreciate that during storage or transit certain quantities of lamps will be broken, typically about 5%. We use all available safety procedures to handle these lamps. Should your broken quantity exceed 5% we would appreciate you contacting our Operations Department to discuss alternative handling and storage arrangements. Crushed lamp debris is usually disposed of contractually by the suppliers of the crushing machine itself and all calls for this particular waste should be directed to the relevant supplier.