• gibmiser@lemmy.world
    1·
    11 months ago

    Those weird bulbs are called compact fluorescent lamps or CFLs. They are energy-efficient light bulbs that contain a small amount of mercury, which is toxic to humans and the environment. they should never be thrown away in the household trash.

    Your local dump or transfer station will (usually) have an attendant who knows how they deal with them.

    • M500@lemmy.mlEnglish
      0·
      11 months ago

      Is it worse for the environment than driving 80 minutes round trip to the dump to ask about it?

      Genuine question.

      • nudny ekscentryk@szmer.info
        1·
        11 months ago

        Perhaps I’m talking from the European perspective but over here every supermarket and convenience store has a battery and light bulb recycling box. Can’t imagine it’s much different in the US.

        • Chobbes@lemmy.world
          01·
          11 months ago

          I’ve got bad news for you…

          Sometimes your place of work might have electronics recycling bins or something, but for the most part you’re expected to go to a special eco centre to recycle large electronics and batteries and stuff like this. Often you even have to pay a fee for them to take these items, which seems incredibly stupid to me because it just encourages everybody to throw them out with the normal trash.

          You may find some stores in some places that will take this stuff, but as far as I know this is not commonplace in much of North America. There are also some services where you can pay a fee for somebody to collect an item. We did that for a swollen lithium cell recently.

          • misophist@lemmy.world
            1·
            11 months ago

            You may find some stores in some places that will take this stuff, but as far as I know this is not commonplace in much of North America.

            Every single lowes or home depot has a recycling station for batteries and CFL bulbs at the entrance or near the customer service desk. I assume those stores are all over the country.

      • Scipitie@lemmy.dbzer0.com
        0·
        11 months ago

        That’s a great question, thank you! It made me dick (edit: standing by my mistake!) a (tiny) bit deeper. I took a different perspective and the tldr is: Do you want to kill specifics? I.e. local plants, animals, water poisoning, etc - then mercury is the winner!

        If you’re after killing via global temperature variation then the car is… Well… Killing it.

        But on a serious note: both are bad but depending on how your local trash is handled those small bulbs could actually have an impact, most likely via the water chain.

        If those are the two options I had I would just store them like OP. But then again where I live most shops take those back to recycle them properly.

        Thanks again for the question, I had a fun few minutes!

          • Scipitie@lemmy.dbzer0.com
            0·
            11 months ago

            Why? If I want to learn the impact I try to understand the intention I would need - it’s (intended to be) written from that point of view.

            Now if I don’t want it I know what not to do - plus the implications.

            • Helix 🧬@feddit.deEnglish
              0·
              11 months ago

              I think you meant dig, not dick. That’s probably what they were referring to.

      • Square Singer@feddit.de
        0·
        11 months ago

        You are comparing tossing the lightbulb into household waste to pretty much the worst way of properly disposing the lightbulb.

        • If you aren’t sure whether they take the lightbulb, check their website or call them. No need to drive there, it’s the 2020s, not the 1920s.
        • Even in places like the US there are often more convenient place to dispose of batteries and CFL bulbs, e.g. some supermarkets or mobile recycling stations.
        • You don’t have to drive to the recycling station separately for each bulb/battery. Your car is big enough to handle multiple of these on one trip and I am pretty certain you have some space in your home for a box in which you can collect them.

        So your question is a false dilemma, because there’s a third option: Collect these things until you have enough that it’s better for the environment to drive them to the next recycling spot than to toss them in the bin.

      • tonyn@lemmy.ml
        1·
        11 months ago

        I got rid of hundreds of pounds of old batteries at my community electronics recycling event this year. See if your community has one.

        • Square Singer@feddit.de
          0·
          11 months ago

          How did you accumulate hundreds of pounds of batteries? That’s a crazy amount! 100 pounds is equivalent to almost 2000 AA batteries.

      • shapesandstuff@feddit.de
        0·
        11 months ago

        Dunno how it is elsewhere but we can bring electronics, batteries and light bulbs to the hardware store for disposal