Environmental Protection by Recycling - disposal of fluorescent tubes

i have 14 burn't out 48" fluorescent tubes and i want to get rid of them since they don't work. I can't just put them out with the trash, right? because they have mercury in them. So where can i dispose them? Thank you..

Check with your local garbage disposal authority or Government (city, county, parish). Some places have monthly hazmat disposal.

Good on you for being environmentally responsible

Does anyone have a newer, better answer to this? I have the same issue but the hazardous waste answer is not useful.

Home Depot takes CFLs for recycling, but not standard fluorescent tubes.

Our city recycling department (near Boston) only offers the choice of hazardous waste disposal. The problem is they buy landfill time every other month and are charged $45/car. They do recommend saving up hazardous waste at home (which seems like a really bad idea) to make a full carload, but that is a ridiculous cost to the city (and our time) for a half dozen bulbs and a few batteries.

In most areas if you do a search for light bulb recycling something should come up. We pay under a buck a bulb to get rid of them.

Are these bulbs from a residence or a commercial entity?

If they are from a residence you should be able to put them in your regular trash collection.

If they are from a business then you must treat them as haz-mat. Most companies now days contract with someone to collect their haz-mat.

Oh, and for the batteries, those old batteries get recycled. The lead is salvaged and used to make new batteries.

From a residence, not business... All my basement lights are going at once, but I did notice that the previous owner of the house marked the bulbs with the same date in 1997! I guess they've gotten good use. As the bulbs go, I've been replacing the fixtures to get electronic ballast (I hate the waste of replacing perfectly good fixtures, but it's cheaper than just replacing the ballast and tombstones and saves me a lot of time.

Trash pickup took the fixtures: I hope they separate and recycle all that steel, but not fluorescent tubes.

Both fluorescent tubes and batteries are treated as haz-mat by our city for residences, but hazmat is geared for dropping off truckloads. There is no good provision for normal household levels.

Wow, pretty amazing in this day and age that an area like Boston would expect people to store hazmat and other such recyclables for six months at a time. In our city of approx 50,000 we have weekly curbside pickup of normal stuff (newspapers, plastics, aluminum cans, cardboard) plus they will also pick up batteries and used motor oil. Electronics and haz waste have to be dropped off at a central location up the road about 10 miles, but they're open Wed-Sat all day. There is no charge beyond what we pay in taxes for trash pickup. :coffee:

I think the ground type and the high water table make's fla more proactive when it comes to garbage and recyling. A year or so before I moved from central fla the county passed a mandatory recyling program. You had your trash container plus 2 seperate containers for recylables. There could be a fine levied if recylables were found in your trash can.

When I moved to tn. I read in the Bristol paper that the city was starting a recyle program and if you wanted to participate you would be charged an extra $x per month :eek: A few years later I read they were abandoning the program for lack of participation. I wonder why :wall::rolleyes::wall: