LTI Introducing Xenon Lamp Recycling Program

[Eric Simonian]

Hello everybody,
Long time viewer of the Film-Tech forums, first time posting.
Just wanted to let everyone know that LTI has started a xenon lamp recycling program for all the major cinema lamp manufacturers.
LTI will take back all used xenon cinema lamps regardless of brand and will recycle the glass, tungsten, xenon gas, and metal components.
a completely cost free program for exhibitors and dealers. More information at the link below on how to get started.

[Ryan Gallagher]

From that article and LTI's page here:
https://ltilighting.com/sustainability/

It "seems" like this is a pre-paid return ship program for each lamp purchased. Anyone more familiar I would be curious if they accept additional lamps too (or separately), but just don't offer the pre-paid shipping?

[Eric Simonian]

Hi Ryan,
LTI will take back non LTI branded bulbs as well. if there is someone who isn't using LTI bulbs than they can reach out to LTI with the number of bulbs they have on hand to return and LTI will email prepaid return labels with instructions on how to package and return the lamps for recycling. LTI will even schedule the Fedex truck pickup so the theatre/s dont have to drop them off at a Fedex location. No minimum or maximum quantities either, could be as few as 1 bulb or as many as a few thousand.

[Ryan Gallagher]

Hi Ryan,
LTI will take back non LTI branded bulbs as well. if there is someone who isn't using LTI bulbs than they can reach out to LTI with the number of bulbs they have on hand to return and LTI will email prepaid return labels with instructions on how to package and return the lamps for recycling. LTI will even schedule the Fedex truck pickup so the theatre/s dont have to drop them off at a Fedex location. No minimum or maximum quantities either, could be as few as 1 bulb or as many as a few thousand.

Good to know. We don't have a pile, but there is a small handful... most still have some life available and are essentially spares. But at some point we'll exceed our willingness to store the spares in the tiny booth.

[Leo Enticknap]

Very useful to know. I pass within 2-3 miles of LTI's factory several times a week on regular service call drives. If LTI is willing to accept will calls, I'm sure I could drop a bunch in to them every now and again.

[Harold Hallikainen]

It's nice that the raw materials can be recovered. Is anyone rebuilding the lamps like Econco does with vacuum tubes? It may not be economical since high power vacuum tubes cost quite a bit more than xenon lamps.

[Jim Cassedy]

I wish I could find someone to take & get rid of over a dozen or more boxes of used
LKRM-350 & LKRM-450 bulb assemblies as used in the SONY SRX-515P projectors.
Sony used used to provide a way to ship these back for recycling (the housings and
reflectors can probably be re-used) but they don't do that any more since they got out
of the theatrical cinema equipment business. Each projector burns 6 bulbs at once, or
12 at once in our large auditorium which uses dual projection for 2D and 3D- - so old
bulbs pile up fast. Unfortunately, the bulbs apparently contain a small amount of Hg,
so we can't just toss 'em in the trash. Because the theater has allowed so many used
bulbs to pile up backstage, one company I contacted said they'd literally have to send
a haz-mat truck & team to come out & cart them away. I'm open to suggestions, if
anybody has any. . .

An LKRM- U350/U450 Bulb Assembly

SRX-515Lamp.jpg

[Stefan Scholz]

I wish I could find someone to take & get rid of over a dozen or more boxes of used
LKRM-350 & LKRM-450 bulb assemblies as used in the SONY SRX-515P projectors.
Sony used used to provide a way to ship these back for recycling (the housings and
reflectors can probably be re-used) but they don't do that any more since they got out
of the theatrical cinema equipment business. Each projector burns 6 bulbs at once, or
12 at once in our large auditorium which uses dual projection for 2D and 3D- - so old
bulbs pile up fast. Unfortunately, the bulbs apparently contain a small amount of Hg,
so we can't just toss 'em in the trash. Because the theater has allowed so many used
bulbs to pile up backstage, one company I contacted said they'd literally have to send
a haz-mat truck & team to come out & cart them away. I'm open to suggestions, if
anybody has any. . .

An LKRM- U350/U450 Bulb Assembly

SRX-515Lamp.jpg

It is like fluorescents, an intact tube has to be disposed off as toxic waste or for recycling in special facilities, broken ones can be added to household garbage. The moment the glass of the burner insert is broken it can go into the trash can, as the mercury has evaporated. Don't get me wrong here, I am not encouraging anyone to suddenly have a lot of defective bulbs. Even though, unlike xenons, there's no cold pressure in them.

[Marcel Birgelen]

It's nice that the raw materials can be recovered. Is anyone rebuilding the lamps like Econco does with vacuum tubes? It may not be economical since high power vacuum tubes cost quite a bit more than xenon lamps.

Maybe you can make that work if you collect them in considerable numbers and ship them overseas. With "western wages", I think you'll have a hard time getting a profit out of such an operation.

[Randy Stankey]

It is like fluorescents, an intact tube has to be disposed off as toxic waste or for recycling in special facilities...

Let me get this straight... You can buy a lamp that contains hazardous mercury, the manufacturer can ship it to you by ordinary means without taking special precautions or paying Haz-Mat charges but, the second you try to ship it back for proper recycling and disposal, it becomes so hazardous that nobody will take it back unless you pay for special hazardous shipping?

Instead, you can break the lamp, release the mercury into the atmosphere then throw the potentially contaminated remains into an ordinary garbage dumpster to be disposed in a domestic landfill?

Did I get it right?

How is it even legal to sell such a product under those conditions?

[Leo Enticknap]

Because when they began to be mass produced and sold, there was far less concern, and political/lawmaking action resulting from that concern, about the environmental impact of releasing those gases into the atmosphere and landfilling the rest of the assembly. Now that they are in widespread use, with a large amount of revenue-earning industrial machinery depending on their ongoing availability, regulating them out of existence becomes a major political and economic challenge. Simply making it illegal to sell such a product would likely put at least hundreds, and maybe thousands of theaters out of business as soon as their current lamps wore out.

My guess is that breaking the lamp and releasing the mercury is not legal, but if so, this is a law that is almost impossible to enforce.

This is not the first time something like this has happened. Until the late '80s, 1,1,1,trichloroethane was the solvent used in almost all the world's ultrasonic film cleaning machines. Then the Montreal Protocol of 1987 banned it in signatory countries. The machines that used this stuff were vital to the work of archival film preservation. Replacements were developed that would run on hexachloroethane (and even distilled water, but with much lower cleaning efficiency), but that required investments that were beyond the reach of smaller, nonprofit archives, and a major ask even for the bigger ones, labs, and studios. When I was a film preservation student in the mid-90s, I was alarmed to learn that the director of the archive attached to the school had purchased several dozen 40-gallon drums of 1,1,1 just before it was withdrawn from sale, and had stockpiled them under the stadium seating of one of the campus's biggest lecture theaters!

[Stefan Scholz]

Let me get this straight... You can buy a lamp that contains hazardous mercury, the manufacturer can ship it to you by ordinary means without taking special precautions or paying Haz-Mat charges but, the second you try to ship it back for proper recycling and disposal, it becomes so hazardous that nobody will take it back unless you pay for special hazardous shipping?

Instead, you can break the lamp, release the mercury into the atmosphere then throw the potentially contaminated remains into an ordinary garbage dumpster to be disposed in a domestic landfill?

Did I get it right?

How is it even legal to sell such a product under those conditions?

It's definitively illegal to break the lamps just to have a bypass for proper recycling. But fact is broken glass vessels do not contain mercury anymore, and therefor are no longer toxic waste. They can be trashed normally without concerns

The early generations of these lamps frequently failed, exploded and releases even more dangerous mercury vapors into the atmosphere in large quantity. A lower 2 digit percentage still does explode before reaching rated lifespan. The vapors ended up in boothes, if not vented outdoors by a duct.
Breaking the glass vessel in cold condition would enable you to collect the mercury in metal form, which does not really pose a high level of danger. So normally this should not be considered highly dangerous or poisenous waste.
I doubt the proposed end of production does really harm many theatres. Most projector types using these lamps, Sony, small NEC or Barco have reached End Of Life status, and start displaying other kinds of defects these days in increasing numbers, which makes long term operation difficult. A lot of these among our customers were replaced last and this year, others are scheduled to be replaced in the forseeable future. At least at the independents we serve.

[Randy Stankey]

My problem is with companies making products containing hazardous substances then leaving the consumer to deal with the mess when the product needs to be disposed. Sure, Sony used to take them back but, now that they are no longer producing (procuring) and selling them, they don't. That leaves us with a bunch of hazardous crap we can't get rid of.

It's easier to recycle toner cartridges! Even if you can't send them back to the manufacturer, there are companies who take them in and remanufacture them.

We can NOT go to the grocery store to buy ANYTHING that isn't packaged in some form of plastic. Much of it can't be recycled. For that which can be recycled, there aren't many good options. Even the plastic that we put out at the curb for garbage pickup isn't always recycled. Only a fraction of it is recycled. The rest gets shipped off to third-world countries to be burned in open pits or is simply buried in landfills. Yet, it is we, the consumers, who get bombarded with phrases like "Reduce-Reuse-Recycle."

We can't reduce. It's impossible to buy anything at the grocery store that isn't wrapped in plastic.

We can't reuse. Most of that plastic is cheap and fragile. Besides, there is just way to much of it. We might be able to reuse that plastic shopping bag to dispose of used cat litter or something but, ultimately, it will end up in a landfill no matter what we do.

Recycling is a crock! It's little more than an open secret. Much of the plastic that is supposed to be recyclable can't be recycled when there is too much food residue or dirt in it. Many plastic items that are marked with a triangular recycling symbol aren't really recyclable. Out of the plastic that could, actually, be recycled, there isn't enough capacity to handle it so the majority of it goes to waste.

Recycling is all bullshit yet manufacturers treat us like it's our fault!

Now, we have used projection lamps from a manufacturer that's gone out of business and we're left holding the bag!

It's all too common that companies produce product with harmful substances then dump the responsibility on the consumer when it comes time to get rid of it.

That's what I'm talking about when I say it should be illegal.

[Jack Ondracek]

Is anyone rebuilding the lamps like Econco does with vacuum tubes?

Dating yourself again, Harold! :-)

Actually, I'm wondering how much longer Econco will keep doing rebuilds. In my stable of transmitters, only one still has a tube in it, and it's an aux, so it doesn't burn a lot of hours.

Same with the Seattle market. Few mains still in operation that run tubes.

As for xenons, we'll all be shooting lasers pretty soon, anyway.

[Jack Ondracek]

That's what I'm talking about when I say it should be illegal

Maybe, but then we'd be left with nothing but Skittles and corn flakes... and I'm not sure about the Skittles.