Environmental impacts of fluorescent lamps in mainland China based on life cycle assessment

China is one of the largest producers and consumers of fluorescent lamps in the world. However, there are few studies that evaluate the environmental impacts of fluorescent lamps in China. This study compared the environmental impacts of two common lighting systems in China, compact fluorescent lamps and linear fluorescent lamps, throughout their life cycles. The environmental impacts of fluorescent lamps at the national level were also calculated. The results indicated that the environmental burden of the products was highest during their usage phase due to electricity consumption. From an environmental point of view, the linear fluorescent lamp is the more appropriate source of light compared to the compact fluorescent lamp. In the case of environment impacts on the whole nation of China, the analysis found that the environmental burden associated with fluorescent lamps was considerable. In 2011, around 145.54 million tons of CO₂ and 0.69 million tons of PM_2.5-eq were generated from fluorescent lamp production in China. More than half of the emissions during the production phase were embodied in the exported lamps. The government needs to adopt policy measures to guide production and trade toward being more environmentally friendly.