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gibmiser ,

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 ,

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

Genuine question.

nudnyekscentryk ,
@nudnyekscentryk@szmer.info avatar

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 ,

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 ,

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.

Chobbes ,

That’s very different than every grocery store, though. Might also be different in Canada.

Rootiest ,
@Rootiest@lemmy.world avatar

My local grocery store takes batteries and light bulbs and a few other electronics/etc for recycling. May just be a local thing though

CrimeDad OP ,

Gotcha. I guess these will just live in the box with my old batteries forever.

tonyn ,

I got rid of hundreds of pounds of old batteries at my community electronics recycling event this year. See if your community has one.

RampantParanoia2365 ,

Your Home Depot probably has a bin for them.

Jaysyn ,
@Jaysyn@kbin.social avatar

Not in my area, I have to take them to Lowes or Home Depot.

Drusas ,

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

shadow ,

And sometimes they don’t. You gotta check ahead, unless you’re going there anyway

intensely_human ,

And Staples takes electronics for recycling

guyrocket , (edited )
@guyrocket@kbin.social avatar

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 ,

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.

cobra89 ,

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 ,
@guyrocket@kbin.social avatar

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

The_Sasswagon ,

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 ,

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.

lntl ,

throw em in the ocean

CrimeDad OP ,

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!

QuinceDaPence ,

It's a safe and legal thrill!

QuinceDaPence ,

It's a safe and legal thrill!

intensely_human ,

bloop

randomaside ,
@randomaside@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

Shout out to CrimeDad running all his own infrastructure top to bottom!

CrimeDad OP ,

🙏

squiblet , (edited )
@squiblet@kbin.social avatar

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

mp3 ,
@mp3@lemmy.ca avatar

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.

CrimeDad OP ,

Every home has the miscellaneous hazmat box.

HubertManne ,

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

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