Suddenly Frugal Blog

A few months ago I wrote a post called “The FYI on CFL Recycling.” This post offered a few basic ideas on where and how to recycle compact fluorescent light bulbs, or CFLs. You want to recycle them because they contain trace amounts of mercury, which is considered to be hazardous waste. And hazardous waste ain’t got no business being in your local landfill.

Recently, I received a follow-up email from a reader asking for recycling information in greater detail:

Q: In making my commitment to live a greener life, I’ve stocked up on compact fluorescent bulbs and have replaced all of the old light bulbs in my lamps with them. Now I’m worried about what I’m going to do when they burn out. I know that I probably don’t have to worry since they’re supposed to last years, but, what can I say, I’m a worrier. Anyway, I don’t live near any IKEA stores and my local hardware store doesn’t take the bulbs for recycling. Where does that leave me?

A: I’m sure that there are many other readers who find themselves in a similar situation–wanting to make sure they properly dispose of CFLs but not wanting to either a) spend money in the process or b) drive all over creation finding a place that will recycle CFLs for free. Well, everyone can worry just a little bit less because, with some extra digging, I’ve come up with other ways that people can recycle their CFLs beyond bringing them to an IKEA.

For starters about two months ago, Home Depot announced that it would take CFLs back for recycling in all of its U.S. stores. Here’s what a Home Depot press release had to say about that:

“At each The 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.”

According to this New York Times article on that CFL recycling initiative announcement, there are 1,973 Home Depot stores in the United States, with most citizens living within 10 miles of a store. This is surely good news and quite a development since I wrote that first post on CFL recycling.

Luckily, Home Depot isn’t your only recycling option. The folks at Miron Construction in Neenah, Wisconsin, were kind enough to write and share some of the CFL recycling resources that they share with their customers. Here are some of their ideas, along with others I’ve pulled together:

* Our Earth Recycling directory let’s you search by state and community to find local places where you can recycle just about anything, including CFLs. I must admit that when I searched my own state for CFL recycling, it wasn’t immediately forthcoming. But who knows: in searching the Our Earth directory, you might come up with other recycling resources about which you didn’t already know.

* The Focus on Energy website, which provides a directory of retailers (in Wisconsin, only!) that recycle not only CFLs but also everything from appliances to water heaters. Gee, now if only every state had such a helpful resource.

* Recycle a Bulb is also a searchable directory of retailers that recycle CFLs. (It is an offshoot of the Veolia Environmental Services RecyclePak program, which allows you to purchase postage-paid boxes for shipping back CFLs for recycling.) Supposedly, this website will guide you to smaller hardware stores that take CFLs, but when I searched using my own zip code, I got hundreds of Home Depot locations and nothing else. I guess that’s a good thing, though.

“If all else fails,” writes Theresa Lehman, Miron Construction’s Director of Sustainable Services, “the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resource’s ‘Responsible Unit’ contact listing identifies specific contacts within each county that should know where items can be recycled.” I’m sure other state’s DNR or environmental protection department could offer similar suggestions.

Now, I realize that there are plenty of places where people can go online to order recycling kits, which they have to pay for, such as Waste Management’s CFL Recycling Kit. And I’m sure there are plenty of dark green folks who don’t mind shelling out $15 a pop to recycle their bulbs. However, I’m thinking that if you want people to be fully compliant with recycling CFLs–and not just tossing them in the trash–then you’ve got to make it convenient and easy for them to do that recycling. And when I say easy, I mean easy for them to accomplish and easy on their wallet.

What say you?