• gibmiser@lemmy.world
    106·
    1 year 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.mlEnglish
      261·
      1 year 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
        242·
        1 year 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
          182·
          1 year 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
            8·
            1 year 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
            3·
            1 year 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
              3·
              1 year 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
              2·
              1 year 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
                  2·
                  1 year 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
            1·
            1 year 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
              1·
              1 year 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
        16·
        1 year 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

      • Echo Dot@feddit.uk
        6·
        1 year 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.mlEnglish
          3·
          1 year 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.

      • Scipitie@lemmy.dbzer0.com
        82·
        1 year 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
            31·
            1 year 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.