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Re: FIRST Fundraiser: Selling LED "Lightbulbs"
I'm curious about LED manufacturing.
For instance: Hybrid cars are great, but it's pretty clear that when you factor in their manufacturing and disposal pollution, it's difficult to make a case that they are substantially better for the environment that high-efficiency diesel or gasoline cars. In fact, considering the world-monopoly that China has on many rare-earth metals you are trading one monopoly (OPEC) for another (China Inc.).
What is the total pollution cost for LED manufacturing and disposal? I know some fairly nasty chemicals are used: gallium arsenide, etc. This information doesn't seem to have been researched very well on the web yet: it seems that most people are still in the honeymoon phase with LED lighting and are discounting the manufacturing process.
That's not to suggest that it's not a significantly better product. Who knows, maybe the lack of information on the net regarding the manufacture is because it's nearly pollutionless. Does anyone have enough knowledge of the process to describe what types and amounts of pollution we might be looking at?
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