How you dispose of compact fluorescent light bulbs is important. Why? Because they contain mercury which can be harmful to the environment. If your bulb is not broken, it’s much easier. Most major cities have a recycling center that will take cfl bulbs. They then send the bulbs to a center that will take off the base to recycle, they will recycle the glass and will also salvage the mercury and reuse it as well.
If you don’t have a recycling center in your area, according to the EPA you can double bag your bulbs and place in your trash. It is very important that you visit the EPA website for details on centers in your area. If you are a commercial operation, very different rules apply. You must get your fluorescent bulbs to a recycling center and often pay a fee to do so. You can find online service to do this if you don’t know anyone locally. A big one is EPSI.
To view a more detailed account of what to do with these bulbs or how to take care of them when one breaks, please read our entire article on the subject.
Tags: disposing of cfl light bulbs, disposing of compact fluorescent light bulbs, disposing of fluorescent light bulbs, recycling fluorescent light bulbs, recycling light bulbs
October 26, 2008 at 6:57 am |
Thank you for this. I am very eco-friendly and I didn’t know these bulbs required special care. THanks!