CFLs

When I first learned about all the benefits of CFL’s I thought they were a great idea. I went out and bought a case and planned to install them every time one of my regular bulbs went out. I have a ceiling fan light fixture in which two regular CFLs would not fit and I was happy to find some shorter CFL bulbs. I was ready! Many months later I still only have a few of them installed around my house. I really would like to put them in all of my light fixtures but taking out a perfectly good light bulb and throwing it in the trash doesn’t seem all that environmentally friendly to me. What do you think? How did you make the transition?

What about the issue of recycling these bulbs? Because they contain mercury you can not just throw them in the trash. I’ve only got one bad one so far. I live in a very small town in a rural area and you can’t recycle them here. I put my bad bulb in a bucket and am going to hang on to it until I am somewhere that it can be recycled. When I did a search on the web about recycling these bulbs anywhere I travel, several of the places listed were restricted to local residents. I see a big problem here. I hope we are not facing another environmental nightmare of the future. These bulbs have really been pushed as one of the ways individuals can act against global warming but if it’s difficult to correctly dispose of them, what then? Will we end up with millions of mercury containing CFL bulbs in the landfill?

On June 24, 2008, Home Depot announced that they would accept all CFLs at any of their stores. Evidently you just give them to any “associate behind the returns desk”. Here is the press release. Personally I hope they will implement some sort of area where you can drop them. Can you imagine standing in line at the Returns desk to turn in your light bulb? The hassle factor seems pretty high. Have you tried this yet? Next time I go to a town with a Home Depot I’ll try it. Home Depot, of whom I’m not particularly fond, has also launched an Eco Options program for themselves and their customers. I salute them for that effort. As an aside, Earth911’s site has a recycling locater where you enter your item type and your zip code and they will tell you where you can recycle it.

How do you deal with your used CFLs?