Frankly, I was blown away after finding out that the CFL’s contained mercury and when first being sold,  no one mentioned that the disposal of these bulbs is an important issue in the “sustainablity” side of using them.

I felt perplexed and angry over this new technology.   I read a response from an  article in O magazine, Ocober 2008 issue. Shedding Some Light.  Which helped me to understand  the big picture a little better.

One woman wrote in  to O with feeling more less my feelings. The next month  O  got a response from Lauren ” Schmitt Olabisi PHd, an environmental scientist.

“As an environmental scientist who works with energy issues, I ‘m writing in response to the reader who had concerns about the mercury in CFL’s. In fact, the amount of mercury contained in these bulbs is very small compared to the mercury released into the air when coal is burned to generate electricity (coal provides about 1/2 of our electricity  nationally). You reduce the amount of electrity you use when you install the CFL ’s, you are cutting back on carbon and mercury. ”

With this said, we still need to be aware and recycle these. Home Depot now has a national in store recycling prgram, go to homedepot.com/ecooptions and visit energystar.gov/cfls  to learn more about our options.

What I started to do is I designated a show box for old batteries, bulbs and other things I am not sure what to do with. When it is full, I start to research to find the best options to dispose/recylcle them.  Office Depot has a program where you can purchase special recycle boxes, fill them with all of your computers and gadgets, take the box to office depot and they will ship it for free to the appropriate recycling stations.