Good news on the environment front! The Home Depot will now accept unbroken
consumer compact fluorescent lightbulbs (CFLs) at all locations. The service
is free and the first such offering made so widely available in this country,
according to the retail chain.

Customers can simply hand over any expired, unbroken CFLs to the clerk behind
the returns desk. The bulbs will go to an environmental management company
responsible for coordinating CFL packaging, transportation and recycling to
maximize safety and ensure environmental compliance.

According to the EPA’s Energy Star Program, if every American swapped one
incandescent bulb for a CFL, it would save enough energy to light more than
3 million homes for a year, save more than $600 million in annual energy
costs and prevent greenhouse gases equivalent to the emissions from 800,000
cars.

CFLs contain small amounts of mercury, a toxic substance. But according to
the chief health officer at Environmental Defense, a conservation advocacy
group, the amount of mercury in a CFL is very small, only 4 to 5 milligrams.
This is almost 1,000 times less than what is in mercury thermometers.