Ive heard conflicting info on recycling of incandescents and CFLs. Also, should I replace the incandescents one by one as they burn out or replace them with CFLs all at once?
Incandescent light bulbs should be thrown in the garbage as they cannot be recycled. Although it may seem wasteful to throw them out if they still work, your old bulbs are requiring the use of 75% more coal and are therefore more wasteful from that perspective. CFLs should be recycled at the Boulder Country Household Hazardous Waste Facility (call 303-441-4800 for hours). (source: Boulder County – Resource Conservation Division) because of the small amount of mercury they contain. To dispel another myth, the amount of mercury in CFLs is very small (100 times less than typical thermometers) and it is not released unless the CFL has broken. Using just one CFL prevents 28mg of mercury from being emitted from a coal-fired power plant, and since average house has 30 light bulbs, using CFLs is clearly the best choice.
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