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?
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.
Gotcha. I guess these will just live in the box with my old batteries forever.
I got rid of hundreds of pounds of old batteries at my community electronics recycling event this year. See if your community has one.
Your Home Depot probably has a bin for them.
Is it worse for the environment than driving 80 minutes round trip to the dump to ask about it?
Genuine question.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
In the US TV sets can be dropped off for free at best buy
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.
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).
Yes. This is directly bad for your immediate environment. But also, most of the big hardware places like Home Depot accept them.
Best Buy accepts electronics recycling too.
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!
I hope that second sentence was a typo…
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.
Dicking deeper means something entirely different from digging deeper.
You typed “dick deeper” I think you meant “dig deeper” 😂
Oh. Ohhhhh. I'll leave that in there for others to laugh at!
And thanks for pointing it out I completely missed your point!
I love leaving mistakes for others to laugh at.
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.
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.
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
There's barely any recycling infrastructure where I live so to the landfill it'll go...
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
Not in my area, I have to take them to Lowes or Home Depot.
I didn't know that Lowe's and Home Depot accept these for disposal. Useful info.
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.
It’s worth pointing out the same is true for batteries. Home Depot and Lowe’s will typically accept those and old cellphones, etc.
I recycle old dollar bills
And sometimes they don't. You gotta check ahead, unless you're going there anyway
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.
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.
Every home has the miscellaneous hazmat box.
Some Home Depot and Lowes locations take these for recycling if you live in the US. Ask about it at the customer service counter.
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
throw em in the ocean
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!
It's a safe and legal thrill!
Shout out to CrimeDad running all his own infrastructure top to bottom!
🙏
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