Disposing Those New Light Bulbs

Barbara received the following email and passed it on to me.

"Hello. Thank you for the reflections on the "new"bulbs that take some of the stress from the environment. Perhaps you would also tell folk that while they last a loooong time that they also need to be carefully recycled. There is mercury in the bulb and you can't just throw it out as with an incandescent bulb. "
Thanks -- Dick Lewis Central NY

You should know that:
*One teaspoon of mercury can contaminate a 20 acre lake forever
*The EPA reports that 187 incinerators nationwide emit approximately 70,000 pounds of mercury into the environment each year.
*Each year, an estimated 600 million fluorescent lamps are disposed of in US landfills amounting to 30,000 pounds of mercury waste.

Lamprecycle.org is just one resource for any light bulb ("lamp") user seeking details on recycling spent mercury-containing lamps. To get more information go to:
http://www.lamprecycle.org/

There is a lot of information out there about this on the Internet, but for your local town, call them up to find out what to do in your area.