Yesterday I spent some time perusing some forums for a particular business that uses fluorescent lamps to see how they were handling their lamp recycling. What I found was more shocking than George Hamilton‘s fake tan! There were owners that actually said they would rather throw them in the dumpster or in the woods because it was cheaper than properly recycling. I remember a few years back I saw one of these posts and replied to the forum just offering some information and a solution to consider. Next thing I know another company jumps in saying their recycling box is cheaper. Funny part is was that the other company is a broker and also charges shipping. It turned into a whole post/reply war of which service was better with all the other forum users just sitting back  laughing at us, but who is the joke really on? The below are real posts (whether in jest or not there is always a grain of truth):

“Well, I throw mine in the trash.”

“Wait til after dark. Then put them in your comps dumpster.”

“We have this beautiful big blue dumpster behind our salon that we just throw all the old bulbs right into. We keep a few boxes of extra bulbs in the back for marketing.”

“…just use a couple of plastic bags and a hammer on them first lol”

“Dumpsters goooood. Paying to recycle badddddddddd!”

There were people on the forums expressing their dismay at some of the posts and did include information about the laws and proper recycling. Its the law but business owners choose not to comply. Why? To save money? To save time? To save effort? Or is it more of an education piece? Everything is funny until the EPA comes knocking and racks up the fines for improper storage and recycling. At that point see if putting them in a dumpster is as funny as writing checks to pay the fines.

Get educated on your state’s universal waste laws for lamp recycling and see what recycling solution is right for you.