Great Energy Savings, But Good for the Environment?

It’s fantastic that Compact Fluorescent Light bulbs or CFL’s are becoming so mainstream. You can find the bulbs just about anywhere, helping consumers save 75% or more energy just by switching out their filament based bulbs. But it seems we’ve reached another “cart before the horse” situation with CFL’s: what to do with the bulbs when they burn out?

CFL’s contain a small amount of mercury. Of course, we’ve heard the dangers surrounding mercury for years. That’s why most thermometers gauge temperature using an alcohol solution instead of mercury. It’s toxic and can cause major environmental problems by building up in living organisms over time and eventually work its way up the food chain. So, throwing CFL’s out isn’t a really great option where they just end up in a landfill and release the toxic mercury into the ground. The technology already exists to recycle CFL’s easily and put those chemicals to use in more bulbs. However, there are only a few recycling centers set up at this point. Unless you live in the Pacific Northwest or Minnesota, you’re going to have to pay a premium to recycle those bulbs. In fact the three companies online that offer you a shipping container to mail those CFL’s back for recycling charge between $15 and $75 per container!

Wal-Mart is doing their part to get people into the CFL spirit by selling boat loads of them at stores nationwide. I think they should do their part just like they’ve done with the plastic bag recycling bins seen at most stores. They should setup bins so customers can deposit burned out CFL’s when they go shopping. Here in Flagstaff, our city’s hazardous waste disposal center will take the CFL’s and ship them out but that means driving all the way out to the dump. That’s hardly convenient either. It seems until more people start demanding easier CFL recycling, it’s going to continue to be an cost prohibitive chore.

For more information on properly disposing of CFL’s or what to do if one breaks in your house, head to the Energy Star website. If you’re interested in paying for one of those $15 shipping containers, you can head to Sylvania’s Recyclepak website. What do you do with your CFL’s when they burn out? Does your city or county make it easy to recycle them? Tell me about your experience.