Posted on 06/24/2008 12:09:49 AM PDT by neverdem
Some big retailers are promoting compact fluorescent light bulbs as a way to save energy. But improper disposal of the bulbs creates a hazard, because they contain small amounts of mercury.
Recycling them is about to get easier. Home Depot, the nation’s second-largest retailer, will announce on Tuesday that it will take back old compact fluorescents in all 1,973 of its stores in the United States, creating the nation’s most widespread recycling program for the bulbs.
“We kept hearing from the community that there was a little bit of concern about mercury in the C.F.L.’s,” said Ron Jarvis, Home Depot’s senior vice president for environmental innovation, using the industry abbreviation for the bulbs. “And if the C.F.L.’s were in their house, how could they dispose of them?”
Until now, consumers had to seek out local hazardous waste programs or smaller retail chains willing to collect the bulbs for recycling, like Ikea and True Value. Some consumers have waited for retailers like Wal-Mart to have a designated recycling day. Others bought kits to mail the bulbs to a recycling facility.
The Environmental Protection Agency has been looking into putting bulb drop-off boxes at post offices, said Jim Berlow, director of the agency’s hazardous waste minimization and management division.
But those plans are not final, and across most of the country, recycling the bulbs has been inconvenient at best. Industry professionals estimate that the recycling rate is around 2 percent.
Home Depot’s program, which will accept any maker’s bulbs, will bring relatively convenient recycling within reach of most households. Mr. Jarvis estimated that 75 percent of the nation’s homes are within 10 miles of a Home Depot.
“We’re trying to do the right thing,” he said. “Some of the things that we do are for the community and not for the bottom...”
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
This is a good thing!
Mandating the use of CFLs is ridiculous, but so is panic hype about their danger (mercury) and recycling. Also, by the time CFLs will be required, the white LEDs may become cheap enough to use instead.
The current white LEDs all seem to have a slight blue tinge to me.
was wondering what we were going to do with all these bulbs we have been duped into buying which are worse for the environment than regular bulbs
““We’re trying to do the right thing,” he said. “Some of the things that we do are for the community and not for the bottom...”
Oh, YEAH. Bringing people into your store has NOTHING to do with it... you guys are just thinking of the environment.
/sarc
Just like LCD TVs / monitors, with the “color temperature” ranging usually from “warm” standard pale yellow-red (5000K-6500K) to “cold” white-blue-greenish (9300K), you can choose CFLs and LEDs with different range. Though “warm” CFLs are prevalent in stores, matching yellowish color of normal household incandescent bulbs, I bought my CFLs with 5200K as I actually prefer “hard cold” lighting.
More info here:
http://www.answers.com/topic/color-temperature?cat=technology
Yeah, that's why you're selling off-brand CFL bulbs.
At $4.79 for gas there is in way i’m going to take them anywhere for “recycling”!
That may be true. LED tech is coming along nicely, but the holy grail still hasn’t emerged.
The CFL idea would be great if they truly lasted as long as they were supposed to. I go through one about once a year, and I think it’s due to turning them on and off so much. After all, in a traditional office application, (where fluorescents made their mark) they only get flipped twice a day.
But technology is always advancing, and they’ll improve over time too. We’re about to bring a fixture to market that includes a fire rating, UL listing, easy retrofit to existing ceiling cans, and CFL technology that reduces energy consumption by about 75% over halogen- plus a reasonable cost. We’re watching LEDs closely too.
That's because they do. :-)
ping
This sounds like Ethanol all over again,Save Money buy these bulbs !!!! But if they break evacuate your house for your survival,and oh by the way ,dont throw them away in the trash it will poison the water supply,so get in your car and with 5.00 dollar a gallon gas drive to the store to dispose of these wonders ,which by the way are only produced in CHINA !! Yeah but they are going to save the Planet
It sounded like a good idea at the time.
What I’d really like to see is a CFL that would fit into the “school house” globe fixture that all of my ceiling fans use. The ones currently available are all just a bit too long. If I could find them, my conversion to CFL would be complete. I like saving money on my electric bill.
I wonder if they can make money on this.
I’ve wondered if the electronics in the bulb is what goes bad, or the bulb itself, and if the electronics were recyclable.
And of course, if you drive to Home Depot to discard your old bulbs, you may just buy your new ones there as well.
I do have a box of old bulbs I’ve been saving for recycling. I wonder if they will take my big tube lights, I’ve got a bunch of those as well.
The bulbs I bought at Lowes were 6 to a package, and were very short, and fit easily into the globes, and into other fixtures where the bulbs were harder to access. That’s the first lights I replaced, so that I didn’t have to change them so much.
Not know problem bulbs with. break plenty cfls, breath murcury and nver notace brain problums.
Try getting out in the sun more.
Your diagnosis is correct, it's due to frequent on-off action. Should not switch them too often, it reduces longevity and actually increases the amount of energy used. Same with monitors and TVs - the rule of thumb is, if you are going to use them within a couple of hours, don't turn them off.
I have yet to replace one of my CFLs with the spares, and I use them a lot but "constantly". They are also cool to the touch no matter how long they are on and dissipate far less heat than incandescents, in addition to saving energy. Depending on price paid and amount of daily usage, they should pay for themselves within a year or two, at the most.
Here is a good writeup on CFLs and mercury in Popular Mechanics :
Compact Fluorescent Bulbs and Mercury: Reality Check
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