Abandoned Stuff by Saskboy

Check out: http://klightrecycling.com

I got the following in an email:

Now, it actually sounds like they take mostly fluorescent light tubes from businesses, but hopefully they take light bulbs from homes as well if you bring them to there.

Recycling fluorescent bulbs now cool
05 Dec 2007

The Leader-Post (Regina)

A Regina couple and their machine are helping to clean up the environment.

John Brodner and his wife, Kelly, run K-Light Recycling, a company that recycles light fluorescent and HID bulbs and fixtures, helping prevent mercury pollution.

The white, caked-on dust in fluorescent bulbs is a phosphor that contains high levels of mercury. One four-foot fluorescent tube contains enough mercury to pollute 30,000 litres of water, according to John Brodner.

Concerned by the risk posed to the environment by improper disposal of fluorescent tubes, the Brodners started K-Light Recycling.

Brodner said he was in Manitoba visiting Manitoba Hydro when the idea of recycling bulbs came to him.

“I saw these boxes of bulbs that they had. I was curious to know what they did with them, so I asked and was told that they recycled them,” said Brodner.

“At that point I had never heard of (bulb recycling) before. I kind of laughed and thought, ‘Yeah right, you just throw them in the landfill.’ They kept me there for six hours until I was convinced to start doing it here. I thought it was something worth getting into.”

When the company first got started, Brodner described the work of convincing people as being similar to pulling teeth. But as time went on, going green became a fad.

[...]

K-Light Recycling was born in the back of K-Light Sales and Service, a shop formerly belonging to Kelly’s father, where street lamps were refurbished.

“We thought we were already recycling streetlight heads. We handled a lot of bulbs coming in with the fixtures, and we just thought it was a natural fit,” said Brodner.

So the Brodners made a large personal investment into a fluorescent-tube processing machine that takes the fluorescent tubes, and separates the individual components of the tubes for re-use in a variety of industrial products. An advanced filtration device prevents any discharge of the chemical during processing.

K-Light Recycling is one of the few companies that recycles all components of the fluorescent tubes. The materials are sent to various processing plants across the country — depending on the material — where they are turned back into industry-grade products.
They even recycle the cardboard boxes their clients use to send their burned-out bulbs.

[...]
SaskEnergy was among the first clients to sign up for K-Light’s recycling services. Then Manitoba Hydro followed suit. The company’s client list now includes SaskTel, SaskPower, Regina Public Schools, and Superstore.

K-Light’s income has been growing quickly, doubling each year of the company’s four years of existence. The Brodners are optimistic the pace will continue as the green movement grows stronger.

“This year, people’s response has been very positive compared to four years ago when we started,” Brodner said.

“We’re not just tree-huggers anymore,” Kelly Brodner said jokingly.

Home Depot also has CFLight bins, and at some point there may be Household Hazardous Waste Days for collection of them.

Next battle is getting back glass recycling across the city.

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Don’t forget to recycle that dead iPod too :-)

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Hat tip to GPM