this post was submitted on 28 Dec 2023
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These just go out with the other recycling, right? (pixelfed.crimedad.work)
submitted 8 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
10 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.crimedad.work/post/45354

cross-posted from: https://pixelfed.crimedad.work/p/crimedad/645809278769635471

These just go out with the other recycling, right?

#cfl #mercury #lightbulb #ewaste #recycling #garbagenight

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago (2 children)

Those weird bulbs are called compact fluorescent lamps or CFLs. They are energy-efficient light bulbs that contain a small amount of mercury, which is toxic to humans and the environment. they should never be thrown away in the household trash.

Your local dump or transfer station will (usually) have an attendant who knows how they deal with them.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 8 months ago (2 children)

Gotcha. I guess these will just live in the box with my old batteries forever.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago

Your Home Depot probably has a bin for them.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago

I got rid of hundreds of pounds of old batteries at my community electronics recycling event this year. See if your community has one.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Is it worse for the environment than driving 80 minutes round trip to the dump to ask about it?

Genuine question.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Perhaps I'm talking from the European perspective but over here every supermarket and convenience store has a battery and light bulb recycling box. Can't imagine it's much different in the US.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

I’ve got bad news for you…

Sometimes your place of work might have electronics recycling bins or something, but for the most part you’re expected to go to a special eco centre to recycle large electronics and batteries and stuff like this. Often you even have to pay a fee for them to take these items, which seems incredibly stupid to me because it just encourages everybody to throw them out with the normal trash.

You may find some stores in some places that will take this stuff, but as far as I know this is not commonplace in much of North America. There are also some services where you can pay a fee for somebody to collect an item. We did that for a swollen lithium cell recently.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago (1 children)

You may find some stores in some places that will take this stuff, but as far as I know this is not commonplace in much of North America.

Every single lowes or home depot has a recycling station for batteries and CFL bulbs at the entrance or near the customer service desk. I assume those stores are all over the country.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 8 months ago (1 children)

That’s very different than every grocery store, though. Might also be different in Canada.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago

My local grocery store takes batteries and light bulbs and a few other electronics/etc for recycling. May just be a local thing though