LEDs are environmentally friendly on many fronts. First, unlike HID (High Intensity Discharge) lamps LEDs contain NO mercury. In addition, some LED luminaires are RoHS (Restriction of Hazardous Substances) compliant and have been designed to provide more than a decade of near maintenance-free service. That means no re-lamping which means no waste.
Assuming an HID fixture is re-lamped every two years, that’s five re-lamping cycles over a 10 year period.
Just imagine the benefits of choosing LED:
- No concern over proper disposal (hopefully not simply thrown in a landfill) of old HID lamps containing harmful mercury.
- No fuel used and the accompanying pollution to service those fixtures.
- Greatly reduced potential for lane closures and other productivity and inconvenience-related costs associated with maintaining an HID system.
- No natural resources lost to produce the replacement lamps that contain mercury.
- No fuel used to move old-technology lamps from the factory (most likely overseas), to the distributor, to the contractor, to the job site.
It’s important to keep in mind all the positive and powerful ripple effects that using LED technology can have on the environment.