Compact fluorescent light bulbs are promoted because they use up to 75% less energy, last longer and cost less over time than incandescent bulbs. The average household reduces its energy budget by $12 to $20 a month using compact fluorescents. However, discarding these bulbs creates a hazard because they contain small amounts of mercury that, if broken, can cause harm to people and pollute the environment. Overall they are a good thing for the environment. (The E.P.A. devotes pages of its website http://www.epa.gov/mercury/spills/index.htm to “cleanup” instructions for broken compact fluorescents). This may seem a bit inhospitable, but experts see a greater health risk from the mercury emissions produced by coal burning plants, plus most people in their homes have 1,000 xs’s more mercury in their thermostats and thermometers.
The need for a national fluorescent bulb recycling program became apparent to Home Depot, therefore they announced this past Tuesday that they will take back old compact fluorescents in all of its 1,973 stores in the US. This will create the nation’s most extensive recycling program for fluorescents!
Until now, users had to scout out local hazardous waste programs or other retail stores, (like Ikea and True Value), willing to collect the bulbs for recycling. Some people wait for stores like Wal-Mart to have a specified “recycling day” and other customers have gone so far as to buy kits so they could mail the bulbs to a recycling facility.
The Environmental Protection Agency has been looking into adding bulb drop-off boxes at post offices, but this idea has not been finalized. For most of the country, recycling the bulbs has been burdensome. Industry professionals have estimated that the recycling rate for fluorescents is only around 2%, not good.
Home Depot’s program will welcome any bulbs, bringing recycling accessibility within reach of most households, since it’s been estimated that 75% of the nation’s homes are within 10 miles of a Home Depot.
Hey, it’s a start. I’m sure we’ll start to see more recycling programs popping up all over the country. That’s the hope anyway!
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eCycle Group 06.30.08 at 10:42 am
It really makes sense in the case of lightbulbs that the responsibility falls on the retailer, only because they are so difficult to ship and it is so convenient to drop them off at a big box store.
This is in contrast to printer cartridges and cell phones which are really easy to ship and have quite a lot of value.
http://www.ecyclegroup.com
(Printer Cartridge and Cell Phone Recycler)