Let there be lightbulb recycling

Bulb recycling kits keep the glass from breaking.

(Credit: Lightbulb
Recycling.com)

So you've popped new, corkscrew-shaped, compact fluorescent lightbulbs into every lamp at home. Fingers crossed, your next electrical bill will shrink now that those wasteful incandescent lights are gone.

Millions more people may soon follow in your footsteps. A California lawmaker wants the state to ban the sale of energy-wasting incandescents altogether, as Australia is doing. Meanwhile, campaigns such as Yahoo's 18 Seconds promote switching to CFL bulbs, which are getting more shelf space in Wal-Mart stores.

The remains of a lightbulb

(Credit: Sylvania)

However, the funny-looking fluorescents pose a pollution problem. Their energy savings may be ecofriendly, but each bulb contains enough methylmercury to poison a small lake. As with electronics waste, there's no national antidumping law. It's illegal in seven U.S. states to put household fluorescents in with the rest of the trash, but finding where to recycle bulbs can be a pain.

That's because unlike computers, which contain copper and gold--or printer cartridges, which can be refurbished--lightbulbs lack valuable ingredients. It costs several dollars to grind up each bulb to make art glass and to extract the mercury for use in new bulbs (all of Sylvania's bulbs use recycled mercury, for instance).

Here are some ways to dispense safely of spent fluorescent bulbs. The fees can be high, but they'll keep you from breaking the law in California, Maine, Wisconsin, Illinois, Minnesota, Ohio, or Indiana (and soon Massachusetts).

• Many IKEA stores will take dead lightbulbs off your hands, yet another excuse to while away a day at the megastore.
• Sylvania launched bulb recycling in November. You'll pay $15 to get its RecyclePak via UPS, enough to ship a dozen bulbs back via prepaid FedEx. You can send in incandescents, too, although they don't contain poisons like mercury.
• Bulbs.com offers similar kits. A box holding up to 200 compact fluorescents costs $94.
• LightbulbRecycling.com's bucket holding 30 CFL bulbs costs $120. Ouch.
• LampRecycle lists options where companies can dump their bulbs in each state.

[thriftyT]

Read this article later...

I've got CFL bulbs in my apartment that I purchased back in 1999, moved via U-
Haul twice, and they are still going strong.

Buy a CFL now, learn how to recycle it in 2014.

[Ben Reebs]

The Unsustainables cartoon about CFL lightbulbs

Very interesting, informative review on CFLs. I didn't realize they can be such a pain to recycle. So, is it worth in the first place to buy them? I mean, we know that Wal-Mart is jumping in headstrong on a CFL campaign.

We just came out with a new animated episode from The Unsustainables on CFLs: http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid464121026/bclid459097063/bctid663500360

[GalvanizeH]

old lightbulb disposal

Thanks for raising the recycling issue. It's something that needs improving on. GroovyGreen has a good post on CFLs and mercury...

http://groovygreen.com/groove/?p=1200

Turns out the net emissions from using a CFL is probably LESS than from using an energy wasting incandescent. But what to do with your incandescents (the old fashioned bulbs with wire filaments inside)? In some places you can recycle them too.

But if not, how about getting creative...

http://shurl.org/WbxiB

[Mam00th]

In my country, incandescent light are indeed more ecofriendly then CFL... I live in quebec, canada and a recent study have shown that the energy that is wasted through incandescent light is recycled as heat, and during winter, trust me we need it. Since a lot of people still heat their homes oil, removing incadescent light is like adding about 20 000 cars on the road, plus recycling them can be a hassle... I'm not agaisnt CFL, but they are not the best everywhere...