Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Home Depot Recycles Fluorescent Bulbs

Home Depot has just announced a couple of important green initiatives. First, they will now be accepting all compact fluorescent bulbs for recycling in their stores in the U.S. and Canada. This is be offering in over 2,100 stores, so it’s a major step in the right direction.

At each Home Depot store, customers can simply bring in any expired, unbroken CFL bulbs, and give them to the store associate behind the returns desk. The bulbs will then be managed responsibly by an environmental management company who will coordinate CFL packaging, transportation and recycling to maximize safety and ensure environmental compliance.

In addition to the CFL recycling program, The Home Depot has also launched an in-store energy conservation program to switch light fixture showrooms in U.S. stores from incandescent bulbs to CFLs by Fall 2008. This is another great sustainability measure and they believe it will also save the company $16 million annually in energy costs.

And another important public service message: please do not give up on CF bulbs because they contain mercury!

Lots of people seem to have been unnecessarily scared off of these energy-saving bulbs because of mercury. They contain only trace amounts and are SAFE for use in your home. Read more on this topic.

Fluorescent Bulb Cleanup

2 comments:

Dr. Harl Delos said...

How much energy do they really save, after you have to drive 20 miles (round-trip) to dispose of them, because it's illegal to toss them in the trash?

Light bulbs break, and it's not infrequently that it happens; they're fragile, after all, and it's fairly awkward to try to screw lightbulbs into most lamps.

If a CFL breaks, however, you need to evacuate all people and pets, turn off the air conditioning or furnace, and open all the windows.

You have anything ELSE in your home that requires evacuation of all living creatures under fairly common circumstances?

You may call that safe; I don't. As the CFLs in my home burn out, they are being replaced by incandescent bulbs.

Anonymous said...

We purchased a CFL for our laundry room. Sadly, it casts a blue light. It also has a very low wattage rating. It actually hurts my eyes straining to adjust to the dimmness.

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