One of the big advantages to chemical light sticks has already been touched upon. They are disposable. While planning to never come back and clean up the inactive hulls can be considered littering, tossing out chemical light sticks to areas that need some extra light is a lot more frugal than tossing your Fenix flashlight, Krill lamp, Glo-Toob, or anything else that is battery powered. This is especially true seeing as how there are always situations where there is a chance that you may not be able to come back to get your expensive battery-powered light, you need to light multiple areas (how many Krill lamps do you have?), or you need to actually throw the chemical light stick where you want the light to be (how robust are your Krill lamps?). So, in actuality, chemical light sticks are more than just disposable; they are also robust and inexpensive to obtain multiples of.

Another major advantage to these is that they do not use batteries, i.e., they are intrinsically safe. Think about that when an earthquake hits at night, the power’s out, and you smell natural gas. Wanna light your Krill lamp, Glo-Toob, or even your Fenix up now? Are you sure the battery tube you are holding was ATEX rated?

The conclusion is pretty simple. Chemical light sticks are ubiquitous. They may not be the best option for every particular circumstance, but they definitely have their place. They are kind of like the space blankets of the lighting world, in my opinion.