We have just been notified in MD and DC, CFL's (curly light bulbs) cannot be included in regular trash for pick-up. You must deliver them to a toxic waste site yourself. I am getting rid of all of them. If they are that bad, I don't want them in my house. However, I just found out how hard it is to find old fashioned light bulbs.

ALL the incandescent ones will be gone next year--the CFLS are dangerous if you break one. Next year, that is ALL you can buy------
DO NOT put in the trash--they have mercury. Wait till you find a proper disposal site.

If you have a Home Depot, they take them for recycling.

tips from US EPA board: http://www.epa.gov/cfl/cflrecycling.html

Ace Hardware, Home Depot, IKEA, Lowe's, Orchard Supply and other retailers offer in-store recycling.

Some bulb manufacturers and other organizations sell pre-labeled recycling kits that allow you to mail used bulbs to recycling centers. The cost of each kit includes shipping charges to the recycling center.

Isn't it amazing........they have us get rid of our mercury thermometers and now they want us to ADD mercury in our homes in the CFLs. I had one thermometer for over 30 yrs......but a home has at the very least 20 of those CFLs. The goverment ticks me off. I haven't had a CFL yet that lasted more than 1 yr. And I've spent big $$$ on some just because I thought they'd last longer.

Our local garbage company has instructions on how to dispose.

Thanks for the info redkimba.

And to make things worse, I have had two of the CFLs that had burned out start to actually burn! They were both in multi light fixtures, so I didn't hurry to replace them. That is, until I smelled them burning! Dangerous in so many ways. Write to your congressman. There are a bunch who are trying to get that ridiculous bill changed. And don't even get me started on the recycle bit. They are probably going to Mexico and being recylcled like they do the batteries silly people recycle. All that toxic crap gets dumped into the rivers down there and poisions the children.

Did you know that most of the CFL bulbs are made in China? Try to find one made in the USA!

Dad changed a burned out regular bulb in a light socket at his house last week....put in a CFL and it immediately popped and started smoking. He quickly pulled the plug on the light and got the bulb out and found another regular bulb for that light.
It wasn't the lamp...just faulty CFL bulb. These were not cheap ones...these were the ones that were supposed to last for several years.
He took it to Ace to recycle and B#$%#...

We were in a very large home improvement center (will not give name) about a year ago and a salesperson wanted me to buy the new bulbs. I asked her if they were going to recycle them for us because you could not put them in the landfill and she said she had never heard such a thing.

When the got rid of our mercury thermometers they also wanted to make neon lights illegal. They lost on the neon lights.

If you break one on these bulbs in the hospital, you have to call the biohazard team from housekeeping to do the clean up.

I wonder if they even think about the consequences of their actions when they pass all these crazy bills. They just trade one bad thing for another.

Many people have spent the past few years stocking up on the old incandescent bulbs, and have boxes of them stored away for future use. I have not been able to find a 3Way CFL with enough power to see the words in my newspaper. There are so many different ratings and other numbers on the packages, but not a clue as to what they mean. Find a chart on the Internet, print it out and carry it in our pocket. You think???? Nothing is simple any more.

I was in Harbor Freight where an electrician was expounding on the "value" of the CFL's. He said when we finally begin to get the analog lights, we will have good clear lighting. So, when is that going to happen? In my lifetime???

My husband broke a CFL just getting out of the package. There went $10 and to show his frustration, he put it in the garbage can. Our TV consumer reporter says to put it in a zip lock bag, but I know darn well the broken glass will cut the plastic. What's a Mother to do??????????

Keeping safe these days is not so easy and trying to keep our environment safe, is getting to be harder every day. How is all this supposed to work? Get rid of one thing for something else that is not safe? Does not make sense. Government intervention?

June in Cincinnati