Here’s a snippet from Home Depot’s press release:

ATLANTA, June 24, 2008 – The Home Depot, the world’s largest home improvement retailer, today expanded its long-term commitment to the environment and sustainability by launching a national in-store, consumer compact fluorescent light (CFL) bulb recycling program at all 1,973 The Home Depot locations. This free service is the first such offering made so widely available by a retailer in the United States and offers customers additional options for making environmentally conscious decisions from purchase to disposal. The Home Depot Canada launched a CFL recycling program in November, 2007.

At each The Home Depot store, customers can simply bring in any expired, unbroken CFL bulbs, and give them to the store associate behind the returns desk. The bulbs will then be managed responsibly by an environmental management company who will coordinate CFL packaging, transportation and recycling to maximize safety and ensure environmental compliance.

The press release goes on to tout Home Depot’s energy conservation programs, Eco Options product labeling, etc. I know that the cynics among us will question Home Depot’s motives for doing the right thing, but personally I am not so concerned about WHY they do it as long as they do. Let the Big Box stores be the first to take responsibility for All That Stuff they sell to us. (And if you’re really concerned/cynical put your money where your mouth is: don’t buy all that stuff!) When producers and retailers bear the burden that these products create after their useful life, a lot of things will change.

More perspectives on this announcement:
NY Times
Boston Globe
Grist

More on CFLs and recycling:
Grist

More places to recycle various objects (see links for details):
Staples: computers and peripherals, printers, other office electronics, rechargeable batteries, cell phones, printer cartridges
Best Buy: appliances, computers, televisions, cell phones, a/v equipment, batteries, printer cartridges
Whole Foods: glass and plastic bottles, plastic bags, batteries

Here are the details, courtesy of the Green Drinks website:

Join us for BKLYN Green Drinks @ The (Brooklyn) Center for the Urban Environment located on 7th Street between 2nd and 3rd Avenue. Celebrate their exciting and innovative new headquarters as they become LEED-Certified Gold for Commercial Interiors by the US Green Building Council, the first of its kind in Brooklyn!

Founded in 1978, Brooklyn Center for the Urban Environment is dedicated to educating individuals about the built and natural environments of New York City. Creators of the Green Brooklyn conference and the Sustainable Business Network, the Center is a local leader in the field whose commitment to strengthening public education and developing more sustainable communities is rooted in the belief that creating a healthy and livable environment requires instilling an appreciation for and an understanding of the built and natural environments. Their wide range of programs address the needs of the city’s underserved communities with a diverse menu of hands-on educational offerings that develop an understanding of the interdependency of urban life with the local ecosystem, improving academic performance and instruction, and fostering environmental stewardship.

The folks at BCUE want to announce that they are also accepting
recycling on the premises that night:

• Alkaline batteries
• Inkjet/laser cartridges
• Compact Florescent Lightbulbs (CFLs)
• Technotrash, meaning: All forms of electronic media and their cases: diskettes, zip disks, CDs, CD-Rs, CD-RWs, DVDs et al, video
tape (i.e. VHS), audio tape, game cartridges, DAT, DLT, Beta or Digibeta, and virtually all other type of computer tapes.
• Hard drives, Zip and Jazz drives, jump drives, etc.
• All forms of printer cartridges including both inkjet and toner.
• All types of pagers, PDAs and their chargers, cables, and headset accessories
• All types of rechargeable batteries and their chargers
• All of the cords, cables, boards, chips, etc. attached to or removed from a computer.

WHERE:
Center for the Urban Environment, 168 7th Street, Brooklyn, NY 11215 (btw 2nd and 3rd Aves)
F train to 4th Ave or R train to 9th Street. Walk over 2 blocks north to 7th Street and 1 avenue west to 3rd Avenue

WHEN:
Wed 5/21, 7 pm – 9 pm

Cash bar (proceeds to benefit CUE)

Still thirsty? Bar Tano located at 457 3rd Ave and 9th Street will be open until 12 am.

(… Now, if we could only find a permanent place to recycle our CFLs…)