Home Depot launches CFL-recycling program nationwide

Home Depot has done something other major retailers and government at many levels throughout the country have not been able to implement. The home-improvement retailing behemoth today started a free collecting/recycling program for compact fluorescent lightbulbs, or CFLs, at its 1,973 U.S. stores; a similar program at Canadian stores started last fall.

“Recycling is expensive, but if you’re waiting for recycling [of CFLs] to be economically feasible, you’ll never do it,” says Ron Jarvis, Home Depot’s senior vice president for environmental innovation. The retailer’s effort is not a pilot program—it’s here to stay, according to Jarvis, who adds, “We won’t increase the cost of CFLs.”

The move by Home Depot comes at a time when more Americans are installing these bulbs that use about 75 percent less energy to produce the same amount of light as standard incandescent lightbulbs. In 2007, Home Depot stores in this country sold 75 million CFLs; Wal-Mart, 137 million.

Those energy savings don’t come without a cost: CFLs contain mercury, a neurotoxin. (All of the manufacturers of the Energy Star-qualified CFLs we tested claim to use less than 5 milligrams of mercury per bulb.) The presence of mercury raises several issues, including the recycling and the handling of broken bulbs.

To recycle CFLs at a Home Depot, you bring spent, unbroken bulbs to the store’s returns desk. (Starting in September the stores will have special receptacles on-site for the bulbs.) There’s no fee, and the stores will accept any CFLs, even those you didn’t buy from a Home Depot. The CFLs will be shipped to a recycling company, which will break down and recycle the bulbs and properly deal with the mercury, according to Home Depot.

Here’s hoping that Wal-Mart, Lowe’s, and other retailers nationwide follow Home Depot’s lead.—Kimberly Janeway

Essential information: Read our comparison of the major brands of CFLs (available to subscribers).

Comments

[Tim]

Kudos for HD taking the lead on this important issue. Even in this time of rising retail prices (due to the economy and oil prices), I actually wouldn't mind HD and other retailers adding a fair fee to the price of the bulbs to compensate for the recycling. We can only hope that the manufacturers determine a way to make CFL's without the mercury.

[Doug Hagan]

I just today (26 June 2008) took a "dead" CFL bulb to Lowe's, so they apparently are on the band wagon. Cheers!

[Kay]

I'd just like to add that the Canadian company Rona has the same service at all of its stores as well.

[Kap]

what recycling company does Home Depot take the bulbs too and how much does it cost the recycling company? The costs have to be paid by somebody...

[shane hall]

does home depot take bulbs from commercial and/or small business?

[Scarborough]

On June 4 2009, I went to the Rona at Midland/McNicole to try to return a 12 liters Driveway Sealer I bought at the store on May 17, 2009.
The reason I want to return it because I just couldn't mix it to a workable state as the instructions on the bucket suggest. The solid contents condensed to the bottom and separated from the water in less than 10 seconds after the mixture. I couldn't use it with a roller to do my driveway.
I went to the service counter at the store and the clerk checked the bucket and sealer inside and I told him I haven't used it and the reason why I couldn't use it. Then he called an associate manager to come and let me wait. When the associate manager comes, he took the bucket away and came back 10 minutes later telling me nothing wrong with the sealer. I told him again I can't mix it to do my driveway.
Then the associate manager said to me, "You have to take it back and door is right behind you." And he pushed the bucket towards me. I insisted to return it and he told the clerk at the counter in a low voice but I still could hear it," Don't do refund, don't do refund". And then he turned to me and said, "You can go home and see your dad..."
I was frustrated at that moment and went upstairs to their management office looking for the store manager. I didn't find the store manager first but a lady escorted me and she found the operational manager to the counter. In no minutes, I got the refund.
When I told the operational manager how the associate manager insulted me, the operational manager just said that I didn't hear him well and of course the associate manager refused to admit what he had said to me.
I was not satisfied with the product I bought in the beginning, but now I am totally not satisfied with the service at Rona at Midland/McNicole and its management. My feeling was hurt badly as a customer to the store and the icon of Rona has broken in my heart.
I want full written apologies from the associates manager who insulted me at the store that day.
On June 4 2009, I went to the Rona at Midland/McNicole to try to return a 12 liters Driveway Sealer I bought at the store on May 17, 2009.
The reason I want to return it because I just couldn't mix it to a workable state as the instructions on the bucket suggest. The solid contents condensed to the bottom and separated from the water in less than 10 seconds after the mixture. I couldn't use it with a roller to do my driveway.
I went to the service counter at the store and the clerk checked the bucket and sealer inside and I told him I haven't used it and the reason why I couldn't use it. Then he called an associate manager to come and let me wait. When the associate manager comes, he took the bucket away and came back 10 minutes later telling me nothing wrong with the sealer. I told him again I can't mix it to do my driveway.
Then the associate manager said to me, "You have to take it back and door is right behind you." And he pushed the bucket towards me. I insisted to return it and he told the clerk at the counter in a low voice but I still could hear it," Don't do refund, don't do refund". And then he turned to me and said, "You can go home and see your dad..."
I was frustrated at that moment and went upstairs to their management office looking for the store manager. I didn't find the store manager first but a lady escorted me and she found the operational manager to the counter. In no minutes, I got the refund.
When I told the operational manager how the associate manager insulted me, the operational manager just said that I didn't hear him well and of course the associate manager refused to admit what he had said to me.
I was not satisfied with the product I bought in the beginning, but now I am totally not satisfied with the service at Rona at Midland/McNicole and its management. My feeling was hurt badly as a customer to the store and the icon of Rona has broken in my heart.