How do you dispose T5 bulbs

[Fishbone]

I'm looking for an Environmentally sound way to dispose of my old T5 bulbs. I tried home depot but they won't take T5s

 

[garygb]

Yes, HD only takes the spiral CFs. I went on the sanitation website (Los Angeles) to find out what I could do with fluorescent tubes and found a few places (none convenient) where they will be take them. They are considered hazardous material because of the mercury in them. So for now, I have a bunch of old T-5s and really old PCs in the closet.

This seems like a major hole in waste disposal if you ask me. I have a feeling a lot of people aren't going online and searching down the best way to dispose of these bulbs. I expect the vast majority are going directly into the trash and on to the landfill.

 

[Fishbone]

I think you are right. I've been throwing them in trash and don't feel very good about it. I go through a lot of bulbs.

 

[Dino]

I seem to remember an old thread in the Responsible Reefkeeping forum talking about this. I'll see if I can't find it.

 

[Dino]

Ok, I can't seem to find it.

Have you checked with your local city sanitation department? Try pulling a call into them and ask them where you could recycle fluorescent bulbs. It is possible there simply isn't anywhere local around you to do that.

 

[spieszak]

There have been recycling programs for florescent lights for Businesses for years, and there are some states/regions that have laws forcing the businesses to dispose of them responsibly... I haven't been able to find someone to take mine either... and its seriously depressing to me. Most people aren't even aware of the mercury, and just trash them. This is why the "its environmentally responsible" to switch to CFL, and CFL bulb giveaway campaigns drive me nuts. Kind of like the new electric car commercial where they say "what if everything ran on gas", showing little clips of toasters and blenders emitting puffs of smoke as someone pulls a chain to start them.... Electric doesn't come from the wall folks, the majority of electric still comes from burning fossil fuels. So, to be fair, the commercial would need to show a huge puff of black smoke coming from a smoke stack every time someone plugs their electric car in.
I'm all for environmentally responsible... I just hate that we're sheep, and believe what little we're told.
Sorry for the rant... the point being, if you talk to one of your local businesses, they may be able to take your T5's and recycle them with theirs... (that all depends on if they have to PAY to be forced to recycle them in your area or not too though...)

 

[AHDOnline]

This is a good site for looking for recycling places. It is using the zipcode 60441

http://ecyclingcenter.com/simple-se...cycling-(41.5788612, -87.9878005)-res-25.html

It looks like you might have 1-2 places outside of home depot. If you are like us we go through a lot of bulbs, and just buy a bulb recycle box so we mail 100-200 bulbs at a time to a facility. However it makes me wonder a lot is the gas/emissions/shipping offsetting the good of recycling the bulbs?

 

[Fishbone]

Thanks for all the replies. Crazy that as many people that use florescent bulbs there are so few options for easy disposal

 

[garygb]

Yes, crazy indeed. Fortunately for the spiral CF bulbs Ikea and Home Depot collect them, that's a start. But, the tubes are quite common, aside from us aquarists. If something is going to be sold, I think there should have to be a responsible way to dispose of it and preferably a convenient way.

Goodwill will take e-waste (old monitors, computers, broken lamps, etc.--one of the works told me they take "anything with a cord"), but unfortunately they don't take CFs
; (

 

[CarlC]

My local municipal building has a once a year drop off for all things hazardous. I just take mine to work and Safety Clean takes care of them.

Carl

 

[Porkyboy177]

Throw them out your sunroof while doing 60 and watch them explode in your rearview mirror.

 

[Riblet]

If you go thru a lot of bulbs and want to do the right thing. You can get a recycle box that comes with fedex prepaid return label from grainger.com that's what we do at my work. It's around $100 but it holds a lot of bulbs.