According to the nonprofit Relight NY, if every American swapped out just one light bulb for an Energy-Star rated CFL bulb, together we would:  

• Save more than $8 billion in energy costs
• Burn 30 billion fewer pounds of coal
• Remove 2 million cars worth of greenhouse gases from the atmosphere

Still, you can't just glaze over the issue of disposal…because it is a real concern. If you haven’t already heard…CFL light bulbs use mercury. The average bulb has about 5 milligrams, which is 100 times less than the amount that was in the old glass thermometers. But it’s still mercury…and I don’t usually like to jump on the bandwagon of products that just create another problem in the future. So I was excited to see this new report from the Environmental Working Group that highlights which CFLs currently available contain the least amount of mercury...roughly 1- 2.7 mg. 

An Environmental Working Group investigation has identified 7 bulb lines made by Earthmate, Litetronics, Sylvania, Feit, MaxLite and Philips that trump the rest. These bulbs, listed in our Green Lighting Guide contain a fraction of the toxic mercury allowed by Energy Star, reducing the mercury contamination from a broken bulb. All last 8-15,000 hours, dramatically longer than the Energy Star standard of 6,000 hours, and also offer high efficiency.