• gibmiser@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    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.

    • M500@lemmy.ml
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      10 months ago

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

      Genuine question.

      • nudny ekscentryk@szmer.info
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        10 months ago

        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.

        • Chobbes@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          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.

          • misophist@lemmy.world
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            10 months ago

            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.

          • andrewta@lemmy.world
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            10 months ago

            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.

            • hamburglar26@wilbo.tech
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              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

            • Chobbes@lemmy.world
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              10 months ago

              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.

                • Chobbes@lemmy.world
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                  10 months ago

                  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.

          • SeaJ@lemm.ee
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            10 months ago

            Can’t say I have ever had to pay to dispose of CFLs. Bestbuy takes them as does all of the electronic recyclers around me.

            • Chobbes@lemmy.world
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              10 months ago

              Yeah, this was mentioned in another part of the thread. I wasn’t really aware that BestBuy had electronics recycling because I don’t drive so I kind of stick to smaller shops in my area, and I don’t really go to big box stores like that very often if at all. Where I live is super walkable, but I don’t think I’ve seen recycling for electronics in the nearby stores. I might need to look harder when I’m there again, though.

      • LurkyLoo@lemmy.world
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        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

      • RampantParanoia2365@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

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

      • Scipitie@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        10 months ago

        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!

          • Scipitie@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            10 months ago

            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.

      • Echo Dot@feddit.uk
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        10 months ago

        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.

        • M500@lemmy.ml
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          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.

    • Drusas@kbin.social
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      10 months ago

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

    • guyrocket@kbin.social
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      10 months ago

      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.

      • AWizard_ATrueStar@kbin.social
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        10 months ago

        Only problem I have had with LED lights is they stop working after maybe 6 months whereas the CF bulbs would go for years. I have CF bulbs in fixtures that have been working since before I got my first LED installed. What has your experience been? What brand of bulb are you using? I am willing to pay more for a bulb that will last.

        • The_Sasswagon@beehaw.org
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          10 months ago

          You might have fixtures that overheat the bulbs. LEDs run cool compared to other bulbs but they are very sensitive to heat (that’s why the old ones had fins on them). If your fixture is enclosed, LEDs in there will have a much shorter life span.

          One common fixture in these parts are those silly domes with the screw in the middle, they regularly killed bulbs at my old place. I even had one come out that had discoloration from the heat.

          CFLs and incandescents didn’t like those fixtures or heat either, but I don’t know as much about how their life span was impacted.

          • runner_g@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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            10 months ago

            One common fixture in these parts are those silly domes with the screw in the middle,

            My wife and I affectionally refer to those as boob lights.

        • cobra89@beehaw.org
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          10 months ago

          We bit the bullet and bought a bunch of Philips hue bulbs about 4 years ago. None of them have failed out of about 18 of them. The only things that have failed are both of the hue motion sensors we bought to automate lights turning on.

        • guyrocket@kbin.social
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          10 months ago

          What has your experience been? What brand of bulb are you using?

          Happy to answer your questions.
          Most of my LEDs were purchased at Costco for dirt cheap prices. Like $1 USD for a 4 pack. They occasionally have special deals where the utility company subsidizes the price so they are ungodly cheap. I’ve mostly stopped looking for bulbs because I have a houseful now. Costco also reduces your risk with their easy returns.
          The brand is Feit electric which seems to be a common bulb brand around here. Nothing special as far as I can tell.
          And I cannot recall an LED bulb failing. My CFs were also not generally failing. You might call an electrician to see what they might suggest. I suppose there are power supply situations that are unfriendly to LEDs.
          The last LEDs I bought are Feit electric Item 1715918. These are 100 watt replacement LEDs with a switch on them to choose the color (temperature) of light between soft white (2700K), bright white (3000K), cool white (4000K), daylight (5000K) and cool daylight (6500K). Seems like a great idea to let you choose your color. I prefer daylight over the harsher whites.

          cobra89 mentions Philips brand and I have heard they sell some of the best bulbs. I don’t think I have any but I may eventually get some for specific applications.

          Tangential, but here’s an interesting video about dim-able LEDs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbvVnOxb1AI

  • m-p{3}@lemmy.ca
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    10 months ago

    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.

  • reddig33@lemmy.world
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    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.

    • intensely_human@lemm.ee
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      10 months ago

      Same. Until today I had no idea OP had two light bulbs he was trying to dispose of. You learn something new every day

  • psychothumbs@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    Yeah just go ahead and put them in the metal / glass / plastic recycling, they will figure it out on that end with all the others that get thrown in there.

    • PurpleTentacle@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      They contain mercury and are hazardous waste, not recycling. If, or rather when, they break they will contaminate everything around them and are a healthy hazard. So, no, definitely not curbside recycling.

      There should be drop off points in many big box stores for this kind of stuff.

        • PurpleTentacle@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          “Oh no, they’ll contaminate a lot of goods that were prepared for recycling and endanger the health of the people involved in that process chain.”

          When corrected, most people don’t double down on their own, accidental, misinformation. The fact that you chose to be defensive and sarcastic instead, speaks a lot about the kind of person who dumps mercury in the recycling bin with the expectation that others will clean it up.

    • CrimeDad@lemmy.crimedad.workOP
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      10 months ago

      Makes sense to me. They aren’t really just trusting everyone to have already sorted their recycling perfectly, right?