Kazakhstan mulls banning mercury-containing light bulbs

Production of mercury-containing light bulbs will be banned in Kazakhstan, Tengrinews.kz reports citing Kazakhstan Vice-Minister of Industry and New Technologies Kanysh Tuleushin. “We can see that this problem cannot be resolved to its fullest, because full recycling is impossible. That’s why we see the best solution in banning them. The first step was to ban incandescent lamps and the second step, following the experience of other countries, is to banning mercury-containing lamps,” Kanysh Tuleushin said. According to him, energy-saving bulbs are 5 times more efficient than mercury-containing ones and 20 times more cost-saving than incandescent lamps. The price is not an issue any more, because the energy-saving bulbs now cost about the same as the mercury-containing ones. “We currently have 13 plants producing energy-saving bulbs. 11 of them produce lamps based on the light-emitting diodes. These are environmentally-friendly lamps. Two factories can quickly modify their production bases. We will be discussing when to introduce such measures with them. This will be a coordinated policy. I cannot give the exact dates right now. We have to amend the law first,” the Vice-Minister added. By Baubek Konyrov