this post was submitted on 28 Dec 2023

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117

These just go out with the other recycling, right? (pixelfed.crimedad.work)

submitted 10 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

66 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

@[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 106 points 10 months ago (4 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] 66 points 10 months ago (2 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 27 points 10 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] 18 points 10 months ago

Your Home Depot probably has a bin for them.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 10 months ago (5 children)

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

Genuine question.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 10 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] 16 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (4 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] 8 points 10 months ago (2 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.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Not sure if you are willing to share your state but I live in Minnesota and we can get rid of them for free here. My county has a free spot where we can drop off old paint and other chemicals and CFL bulbs for free. Also there is another six spots listed on their website where I can drop CFL bulbs. With the exception of one place it's all free. The one place I'm not sure if they charge a fee as I've never been there and they aren't open right now. But on a guess I'd say they are also free.

Again I'm curious which state you live in.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago

My apartment complex has a battery recycling center at least. Best Buy near me had a bunch of bins for various electronics so at least some areas in the US have convenient places for it.

Now do they actually recycle them vs toss them in the dump? No clue lol

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I’m originally from Canada. This might be something that’s gotten better, at least for batteries and CFLs, but I think large electronics like TVs are still supposed to be taken to the eco centre with a fee. I could just be misinformed though.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

In the US TV sets can be dropped off for free at best buy

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Oh, cool. I don’t shop at Best Buy or Home Depot or Lowes because they’re all out of the way and I don’t drive, so I don’t really know about these stores. That’s good to know, though.

[–] noodle 2 points 10 months ago (3 children)

I love that we have those helpful conversation here on Lemmy!

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[–] [email protected] 16 points 10 months ago

You can usually call or check out a website rather than driving. Most people save them up, then take them all at once or take them when they are going there anyway with other stuff to dispose of.

Also be really careful if one breaks (get everyone out of the room and air it out first).

https://www.epa.gov/mercury/cleaning-broken-cfl

[–] [email protected] 12 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

Yes. This is directly bad for your immediate environment. But also, most of the big hardware places like Home Depot accept them.

[–] AlDente 4 points 10 months ago

Best Buy accepts electronics recycling too.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Is it really 80 minutes to the nearest recycling center that's terrible where do you live?

In Europe you would be hard pushed for it to be 10 minutes.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago

Well round trip so about 40 minutes if it’s rush hour traffic. But that’s to the dump. The closest recycling center is close, but it’s just a bunch of unmanned bins.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago

The US is a lot bigger and more spread out than most Europeans seen to imagine

[–] [email protected] 6 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

That's a great question, thank you! It made me dick (edit: standing by my mistake!) a (tiny) bit deeper. I took a different perspective and the tldr is: Do you want to kill specifics? I.e. local plants, animals, water poisoning, etc - then mercury is the winner!

If you're after killing via global temperature variation then the car is.... Well... Killing it.

But on a serious note: both are bad but depending on how your local trash is handled those small bulbs could actually have an impact, most likely via the water chain.

If those are the two options I had I would just store them like OP. But then again where I live most shops take those back to recycle them properly.

Thanks again for the question, I had a fun few minutes!

[–] [email protected] 7 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I hope that second sentence was a typo…

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Why? If I want to learn the impact I try to understand the intention I would need - it's (intended to be) written from that point of view.

Now if I don't want it I know what not to do - plus the implications.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 10 months ago

Dicking deeper means something entirely different from digging deeper.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago (1 children)

You typed “dick deeper” I think you meant “dig deeper” 😂

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Oh. Ohhhhh. I'll leave that in there for others to laugh at!

And thanks for pointing it out I completely missed your point!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago

I love leaving mistakes for others to laugh at.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 10 months ago

You can also google your location, lots of places have the information online on a website or app. I think OP is from NJ so

https://ucnj.org/recycling/fluorescent-bulb-recycling/

https://www.nj.gov/dep/dshw/recycling/fluorescent_bulbs.htm

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago

There's barely any recycling infrastructure where I live so to the landfill it'll go...

[–] [email protected] 49 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

No. They contain mercury and electronics and are typically not recyclable. They may be recyclable, but probably not curbside, and are considered hazardous waste. See https://www.epa.gov/mercury/recycling-and-disposal-cfls-and-other-bulbs-contain-mercury

[–] [email protected] 36 points 10 months ago (3 children)

Not in my area, I have to take them to Lowes or Home Depot.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 10 months ago (3 children)

I didn't know that Lowe's and Home Depot accept these for disposal. Useful info.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 10 months ago (1 children)

My local Lowe's has a bin to drop them in near the exit after checkout.

The home Depot has a drop bin near the entrance.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 10 months ago (1 children)

It’s worth pointing out the same is true for batteries. Home Depot and Lowe’s will typically accept those and old cellphones, etc.

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 months ago

And sometimes they don't. You gotta check ahead, unless you're going there anyway

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (2 children)

Second this.

CF bulbs have some mercury in them and need to be disposed of properly. DO NOT put these in the trash!

I took mine to the collection box in the customer service / returns area at home despot.

ETA: I think I am now rid of all the compact florescent bulbs in my house. LEDs are now cheap enough that I'll get rid of good CFs for the energy savings.

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

Some cities are now using a service from ReCollect that let you figure out how to dispose of most materials, you could look on your smartphone if there's literally an app for it.

It even comes with your waste/commpost/recycling collection schedule, reminders, etc.

That kind of hazardous material such as CFL lightbulb will likely require special handling, so for that kind of stuff I keep a box for those items I can easily dispose of, that I'll bring to my local ecocenter when it's full.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 months ago

Every home has the miscellaneous hazmat box.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 10 months ago

Some Home Depot and Lowes locations take these for recycling if you live in the US. Ask about it at the customer service counter.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 10 months ago

Granted this and another post here has me wondering how sincerely they are made but anyway you can't take anything for granted nowadays as different recycling providers will take different things and some stop taking things so you need to check their website like once a year. for example here is mine https://cdn.wasteconnections.com/cms/groot-west/Groot%20Recycling%20Guidelines.pdf

[–] [email protected] 7 points 10 months ago (1 children)

😬 Thank you for the education, kind internet friend. 😬

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 10 months ago (1 children)

throw em in the ocean

[–] [email protected] 16 points 10 months ago (3 children)

I was just thinking that since I also have an old car battery to get rid of. I'll make a beach trip out of it!

[–] [email protected] 5 points 10 months ago

It's a safe and legal thrill!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago

bloop

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Shout out to CrimeDad running all his own infrastructure top to bottom!

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago

🙏

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