Honestly, I have little faith in the public's inclination to make the effort to dispose of them properly precisely because I work with the public.

It will take a massive community education project just to make sure people hear about this. Instructions are written clearly on the boxes the bulbs come in, but when people have talked to me about it and I mention special disposal, they are mostly surprised. It's as one of my coworkers says about the people who pull on the door when the Closed sign is up: "People don't read." (She goes on to say, "You wonder why they come to the Library.")

Even after an education campaign, there will still be those -- many, many people -- who don't understand, don't listen, don't care, or think that they are exceptions to the rules. That would be OK if the mercury were then ingested only by them, but it won't be.

It reminds me of global warming, writ small.

I don't know what the answer is to the problem of public cooperation, of which this is only a small symptom. The lack of attention to detail and to the common welfare is endemic.

I'm hoping for LEDs. And there's probably something wrong with them, too.