Home Depot announced on June 24, 2008 that it is offering CFL (compact flourescent light) bulb recycling at all of their stores nationwide! This is a free service that provides safe, responsible disposal of the bulbs. Just bring any unbroken, or expired CFL bulbs to the Returns desk at your local store. It's that simple.
Additionally, they are launching an in-store energy conservation program which will switch their lighting fixture showrooms to all CFL bulbs by the fall of 2008. Cost savings for this project alone will be $16 million annually. Fabulous!
Converting to CFLs will save you money. Here's a realistic statistic of what you can save by switching JUST ONE bulb from www.freecfl.com:
An incandescent bulb using 75 watts replaced with a CFL bulb that only uses 20 watts. The average cost of a kilowatt is 8 cents, and the average CFL bulb lasts 8000 hours. Over 8000 hours, a 75-watt incandescent bulb costs $48.00 to run, while a 20 watt CFL (same light output) comes in at nearly a quarter of the cost at $12.80! That is a savings of $35.00 over the life of the light bulb.
You can offset the slightly higher cost of the CFLs by gradually switching over as your old bulbs burn out. The average lifespan of an incandescent bulb is one year, versus a CFL bulb which is 8-10 years. You can use CFLs in anywhere you'd use an incandescent bulb, except for three way switches, dimmers and outdoor lights where a special CFL bulb is required.
