Last US manufactured light bulb factory is shutting down

unsung

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... id=topnews

Truly truly pathetic. I can't really say much else about this right now.

Well actually I can. My company has THOUSANDS of burned out fluorescent bulbs waiting for disposal. In fact there are so many that they have them stored alone in a building the size of a four car garage that gets emptied at the rate of every six months. You can't just thrown them in the trash. So similar to the chip bag thread in regards to them going back to plastic, why create MORE unsafe waste?

TriumphantAngel

i guess the question would need to be asked as to why if the resulting savings in energy and greenhouse-gas emissions are expected to be immense, and they were first developed by American engineers in the 1970s, why do none of the major brands make CFLs in the United States?

because they can't compete with China?

so why is that?

Cosmo

unsung wrote:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/07/AR2010090706933.html?hpid=topnews

Truly truly pathetic. I can't really say much else about this right now.

Well actually I can. My company has THOUSANDS of burned out fluorescent bulbs waiting for disposal. In fact there are so many that they have them stored alone in a building the size of a four car garage that gets emptied at the rate of every six months. You can't just thrown them in the trash. So similar to the chip bag thread in regards to them going back to plastic, why create MORE unsafe waste?

...
I'm sorry, but your statement forces me to ask this question... How lame is the company you work for?
The answer has to be... pretty lame.
I mean, to accumulate a four car garage filled to the rafters with florescent bulbs every 6 months... hasn't anyone there ever thought about shutting off some of the lights?
I work for a large... no, an extremely large manufacturing company and the lights last much longer than 6 months. We run 3 shifts in the manufacturing floor, but the offices are controlled by timers. Our union folks swap out dead or flickering lights and the company has a contract with a lighting vendor that delivers tubes as we need them and disposes of the ones that are burnt out. Most of the shop floor is illuminated by Tungsten filiment or mercury vapor lamps that last a long, long time. They have to because the fixtures are up about 40 feet or so.
In my home, i have florescent tube in the kitchen, master bath and garage... a total of 8 in the kitchen, 4 in the master bath and 4 in the garage. I am going through my second case from Home Depot... where I bought the original case... 12 years ago. Granted, I don't run 3 shifts at home, but, these things last a pretty long time. And to get rid of my burnt out tubes... I take them to Home Depot.

Byrnzie

Cosmo wrote:

unsung wrote:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/07/AR2010090706933.html?hpid=topnews

Truly truly pathetic. I can't really say much else about this right now.

Well actually I can. My company has THOUSANDS of burned out fluorescent bulbs waiting for disposal. In fact there are so many that they have them stored alone in a building the size of a four car garage that gets emptied at the rate of every six months. You can't just thrown them in the trash. So similar to the chip bag thread in regards to them going back to plastic, why create MORE unsafe waste?

...
I'm sorry, but your statement forces me to ask this question... How lame is the company you work for?
The answer has to be... pretty lame.
I mean, to accumulate a four car garage filled to the rafters with florescent bulbs every 6 months... hasn't anyone there ever thought about shutting off some of the lights?
I work for a large... no, an extremely large manufacturing company and the lights last much longer than 6 months. We run 3 shifts in the manufacturing floor, but the offices are controlled by timers. Our union folks swap out dead or flickering lights and the company has a contract with a lighting vendor that delivers tubes as we need them and disposes of the ones that are burnt out. Most of the shop floor is illuminated by Tungsten filiment or mercury vapor lamps that last a long, long time. They have to because the fixtures are up about 40 feet or so.
In my home, i have florescent tube in the kitchen, master bath and garage... a total of 8 in the kitchen, 4 in the master bath and 4 in the garage. I am going through my second case from Home Depot... where I bought the original case... 12 years ago. Granted, I don't run 3 shifts at home, but, these things last a pretty long time. And to get rid of my burnt out tubes... I take them to Home Depot.

Cosmo

From the article... I have a couple of observations...
Didn't company officials know that the move towards CFL bulbs was on the move? If they did know... why didn't they transition the plant over to the new technologies? If they didn't know... they weren't doing their job. same thing for the workers... didn't any of them see this day coming? And didn't the advent of the light bulb force oil burning lamp and candle making companies out of business?
The CFL was originally the idea of an American. But, manufacturing (i.e. Business Decisions) led company officials to ignore the innovation because of the bottom line... it is always the bottom ;line that is important to Americans. it took a Chinese immigrant to work out the kinks in the manufacturing, because American companies are too slow or unwilling to move.
Lastly, yes.... it is sad for the workers. But, the failure of their company to consider them is at the root of the issue. It is much cheaper to have cheap Chinese labor manufacture the goods, than to transition the U.S. manufacturing plants and train the workforce to the new manufacturing processes. The same agruement probably came up when buggy makers in the early part of the 20th Century came about. Their failure to convert manufacturing to automobiles and the thought that there will always be a market in the U.S. for horse drawn buggys force a lot of people to the unemployment lines as buggy shops closed down.

stuckinline

My concern with this is that soon MOST of the jobs in the USA will be outsourced. Would we need to CREATE jobs if we had not outsourced the majority of the manufacturing base?

"Retailers tell me people ask for 'Made in the USA' " Yan said. "I tell them the product will cost 45 to 50 cents more. They say people will pay for it."

I would gladly pay 50 cents MORE to have a product made in the USA, and I have.

keeponrockin

stuckinline wrote:

My concern with this is that soon MOST of the jobs in the USA will be outsourced. Would we need to CREATE jobs if we had not outsourced the majority of the manufacturing base?

"Retailers tell me people ask for 'Made in the USA' " Yan said. "I tell them the product will cost 45 to 50 cents more. They say people will pay for it."

I would gladly pay 50 cents MORE to have a product made in the USA, and I have.

Exactly. I try to buy at least SOME of my guitar shit made in the USA/Canada. Most of the time, the product is better.