Does anybody know about a private/public partnership in which CFL lightbulbs are taken-back at the point of sale and then returned to the manufacturing sector where the toxic, rare earth, electronic waste and inert constituent materials can be recovered and used to manufacture the next batch of CFL bulbs. I am looking for an example of program that covers a large city (at least 100,000 ihabitants) or a small country or a county or province.
Jan E Gravemaker
Rehabilitation and Weatherization Inspector
King County Housing Authority (KCHA)
Tukwila WA 98188 USA
Phn: (206)214-1247
Fax: (206)214-1259
Email: jang@kcha.org
Website: http://www.kcha.org/home/home.aspx
Manufacurer/Public Cooperation Takeback CFL Bulbs
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January 10, 2008 12:45 PM
Wisconsin's Focus On Energy has a statewide program for this purpose. See: http://www.focusonenergy.com/Residential/Lighting/cfl_recycling.aspx
Dane County, Wisconsin (population 475,000) also has an ordinance requiring retailers of cfls and other fluorescents to accept spent lamps for recycling when a customer purchases a new bulb. http://www.co.dane.wi.us/pdfdocs/ordinances/ord041.pdf
Brad Wolbert,
P.G. Hydrogeologist
Waste & Materials Management Program
Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources
(*) phone: (608) 264-6286
(*) fax: (608) 267-2768
(*) e-mail: Brad.Wolbert@Wisconsin.gov
January 10, 2008 02:49 PM
I am not sure how the Dept. of the Environment for the city of San Francisco set up their collaboration with hardware stores,bulb manufacturers, but they have a list of 20 stores in San Francisco that take back used CFLs and tubes. If you want to contact the Dept. their number is 415-355-3700.
Pamela Wellner
Regulatory Analyst
Energy Efficiency California
Public Utilities Commission
pw1@cpuc.ca.gov
January 11, 2008 02:46 AM
I heard that the city of San Luis Obispo in CA has done that
paul kazyak
Maryland DNR
...
Hi,
I forwarded this question to our mercury programme manager and she responded with this: "Both IKEA and Home Depot offer point-of-sale takeback programs for CLFs throughout Canada. I would assume that the bulbs are then recycled for reuse, but don't know all of the particulars in terms of who pays for what. I know that the Home Depot program uses Fluorescent Lamp Recyclers (FLR) for their recycling and is supported by Phillips Lighting, but I'm not sure about IKEA's program."
Hope this helps
Rebecca Spring
Pollution Probe
Toronto, ON
rspring@pollutionprobe.org
www.pollutionprobe.org