- CFLs contain a small amount of mercury that can be harmful to the environment. Each bulb contains approximately five milligrams of mercury, enough to cover the tip of a pen. Approximately half of the mercury in the bulb is vapor and the other half is contained in the powder and the glass.
- Because CFLs contain mercury it is important that they are recycled. In Minnesota, it is illegal to place them in the garbage.
- Beginning on June 9th, 2008 you can recycle your used CFLs at any Menards store in the state of Minnesota. This FREE and CONVENIENT recycling option is brought to you by Great River Energy, in partnership with our 28-member cooperatives.
- You can also recycle your used CFLs at many local recycling centers or at your community's next household hazardous waste collection event.
- You can find out your options for recycling by going to: www.minnesota.earth911.org or www.pca.state.mn.us
CFL bulbs use up to 75% less energy to produce the same amount of light as incandescent bulbs.
Average life of a CFL bulb is 8,000 hours versus 1,000 hours for an incandescent bulb.
A typical CFL bulb costs about $3 more than a regular incandescent bulb but saves an average of $30 over its lifetime in energy and replacement costs.
Incandescent bulbs waste 90% of their energy creating heat.
If every home in America replaced the five most frequently used bulbs in their home with ENERGY STAR® CFL bulbs, it would eliminate greenhouse gases equivalent to the emissions from more than eight million cars.
If each household in Great River Energy's service area replaced 5 incandescent bulbs with CFL bulbs it would eliminate 201,000 tons of greenhouse gas emissions.
CFL bulbs are available in different sizes and shapes to fit in almost any fixture, for indoors and outdoors.
CFL bulbs generate 70% less heat, so they're safer to operate and can cut energy costs associated with home cooling.