Go Green: Recycling Bulbs

Of the many waste materials that households and commercial establishments produce, light bulbs, are commonly wasted. Green waste management advocates safe disposal methods to recycle bulbs and keep them from ending up in landfills. Bulbs contain hazardous chemicals. Even energy-efficient light bulbs like the commonly used compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs) and high intensity discharge (HID) bulbs like mercury vapor bulbs and metal halide bulbs contain small amounts of mercury. When dumped in a landfill, the materials leak out through breakage and pollute the atmosphere.

You can go green and prevent this with a bit of awareness and caution. Nearly all components of a light bulb or lamp can be recycled. The glass covering, metal caps at the base and mercury powder can be separated and reused. The mercury can be reused for making bulbs or other products. Here are tips on how to recycle bulbs.

Most states have recycling programs for bulbs. In fact, in some states like California, Minnesota, Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, and Wisconsin, it is illegal to dispose fluorescent bulbs with your general trash. Check with your local county's department for hazardous waste disposal for information on how and where you can drop off your light bulbs. You can find this information with the Environmental Protection agency (EPA) , Where You Live and Earth911.org.

If your state does not have a program for recycling bulbs, EPA recommends that you put them in two plastic covers, seal them and leave them for trash pickup.

Alternatively, you can drop off your dead bulbs and fluorescent light tubes at stores like Home Depot where they run a recycle program for such wastes.

You can also buy a recycle pack like the one sold at Think green From Home and place your bulbs in it and mail it to a recycle center.

Handle bulbs and tubes with care. If you break them you run the risk of not only hurting yourself with glass shards but also exposing yourself to toxic wastes.

Do not trash other glass waste with bulbs. Separate your glass wastes before disposing them. Contaminants from other types of glass can affect the quality of the recycled materials. Go green by developing the habit of separating your wastes at home - have separate trash cans or paper bags for each type of glass waste.