recycling CFLs and flourescents

A common waste item containing mercury are flourescent light bulbs.   The CFLs (Compact FLourescents) replacing standard incandescent bulbs are readily accepted for recyling at places like Home Depot, Lowe’s, IKEA, and many others.  But those places and most others will not take the long, tube-shaped flourescent lights found in most office buildings and in many garages.   I found one place in Fremont: Orchard Supply Hardware (OSH).   All OSH locations will accept these bulbs for recycling, so don’t throw them in the garbage.  Kudos to OSH!

As a final note, Norm has indicated that he would like to apply more of an analytical, measurement based system of blogging on our Green Guineapig experiences.   I agree with him, and I plan to do so in future posts.   It is so much easier to find incentive in conserving energy, money, or any other resource if you can put a concrete number on things.  But when it comes to recycling hazardous waste, there is unfortunately no money saving, no energy saving, not even a pat on the back.  And it admittedly takes a bit of extra effort to recycle hazardous waste properly.  But it’s THE RIGHT THING TO DO so that you, your neighbors, and the rest of us can continue to enjoy a healthy environment with clean air and water.  You can’t put a value on these things, because they are priceless.

– GP Dave