I appreciate your concern for mercury that exists in CFL light bulbs, next year we hope to setup a recycling program to address this issue and avoid the low risk of mercury contaminating the environment.

This campaign was ran by a chain of phone call shops and a solar company – neither with a significant economic interest in selling CFL light bulbs. We started this campaign to help out our Bottom of the Pyramid customers lower their energy bills and consumption which in turn helps their budget and prevents blackouts that frequently occur due to too much demand on our fragile energy grid.

I hope this clears up any confusion about our intentions with this campaign and look forward to any advice in helping us setup a recycling campaign for the the CFLs while we wait for the price of LED bulbs to come down.

Brian Forde
President
Llamadas, S.A.
Managua, Nicaragua

Having spoken to one of the people behind this campaign, a man who went to Nicaragua as a Peace Corps volunteer and has nothing but the most positive of intentions, I can say that your presumptions as to the manufacturer’s intent are incorrect.

As for CFLs being a “toxic nightmare,” that is an overstatement. Read this article on the actual toxicity, and the possible effects, to see a more nuanced perspective. http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/05/ask_treehugger_14.php

I agree, LEDs are more efficient and have the possibility for better quality light. And at this point, they are quite expensive, even by developed world standards. To expect the rural poor of Nicaragua to make the leap from 50 cent incandescent lights to something many times that amount, more then the 4x CFL costs, is to ask too much. We in the US don’t currently do it, why would these people, who make $60-100/month, do it?

When they become more on par with CFLs in pricing, then it’s a different conversation. But now, giving a way to save money, energy, and allow for people to have illumination at night when they may not have previously, is a step forward.