I took a little bit of heat for recommending CFLs (compact fluorescent lightbulbs) to readers. Some people really object to them because of their mercury content.
They do contain some mercury (about four milligrams – old thermometers used to contain 500 milligrams – yikes!) and we do need to be more careful not to break them. I’ll take this opportunity to say, if you DO break one, go here for proper clean up instructions. But I still believe the switch to CFLs is a necessary step that all households need to take… I won’t change my view on that.
Enter: Home Depot
I can’t believe I just heard about this(!) but Home Depot recently started a program dubbed their National CFL Bulb Recycling Initiative. All you need to do is bring your burned out, UN-broken CFLs to a Home Depot location, hand them to a store associate in customer service and they’ll turn them over to an environmental management company so they are properly disposed and won’t cause contamination.
This is such good news, because there are 1,973 Home Depot locations in the United States and 75% of households are within a 10 mile radius of one of their stores.
Bravo, Home Depot!
Now, not only do we have an opportunity to make the right choice in purchasing CFLs but we can also be guilt-free afterward.
So, step number one: don’t drop the damn bulb! 
Step two: five years from now, when they FINALLY burn out(!) take them for a drive to Home Depot and say ’thank you very much!’
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Thanks for posting about this! This is great, and really encourages people to buy them and recycle. If Home Depot is doing it now, maybe others will follow!
OrganicallyTvs last blog post..A humorous and eye opening short film about plastic bags
This is FANTASTIC news! Thank you so much for this! The only place I knew of before was Ikea, and the nearest one to me is 45 minutes. I did take one with some electronics to a place that recycles old tvs, computers, etc. but after they took it, I got the feeling they weren’t so sure about it, so my guess is it wound up in a landfill
Excellent to know about Home Depot!!
OneGreenMommys last blog post..Sweet Dreams
Organically Tv – it is great news. I will never change my mind about CFLs either and now I’m just so happy that there is a resource for what some consider a problem!
OneGreenMommy – I’m so glad I helped! Our IKEA is an hour & a half away!…yikes! I’m thrilled that Home Depot has stepped up to the plate too!
[...] already has a small awareness of the environment – we recycle, use diesel, have converted all our lightbulbs and try as best we can not to waste electricity and water. Even my kids brush with the taps off [...]
[...] It’s now sealed in a container and awaiting drop off at Home Depot. You might remember that they accept CFLs for proper disposal and that is key. Landfills are the last place CFLs belong because of the mercury, so please, [...]
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