INCANDESCENT light globes are now off the shelves, replaced with the more energy efficient lighting such as Compact Flourescent Lamp (CFL) globes, which use only 20 per cent of the electricity to produce the same amount of light.

But the CFL globes, which contain small amounts of mercury, will be going into landfill in Port Lincoln because there is no recycling program in place.

As of this month retailers can no longer sell incandescent globes as part of a national phase-out that is expected to reduce Australia's greenhouse emissions by 28 million tonnes between 2008 and 2020.

There have been concerns raised about the mercury in the longer lasting CFLs but according to the Federal Government's environment website new standards include a maximum mercury level of five milligrams per lamp and even if the CFL is broken the short term potential exposure is not a significant health risk to adults or children.

The Environment Protection Heritage Council is currently gathering information to identify any problems likely to come from disposing of CFLs in landfill.

Several South Australian councils have set up CFL recycling programs with CMA Ecocycle but Port Lincoln has no recycling program for CFLs so they will be put into landfill.

Council operations manager Craig Matena said recycling the globes would be very expensive because they would have to be freighted to Adelaide for processing and the council was not proposing a recycling program at this stage.

For more information about the phase-out visit www.environment.gov.au