So you’ve been thinking about exchanging those hot incandescent lightbulbs for lower wattage compact fluorescent lamps but there’s one nagging thought you worry about: Mercury. Yes, it’s true that there is between 4-6mg of mercury per cfl. You worry, what happens if the lamp breaks? How do I recycle them post usage? Well, the good folks at Energy Trust published an informative article about these issues recently. The chart below is from their article, showing that even with the mercury in the bulb, over a 5 year burn, the CFL still results in less mercury than an incandescent bulb.