Mercury Lamp Recycling Information for Canadians

Lamp Collection Options for Households and Small Businesses

Lamp recycling is not an option that is typically facilitated by Canadian municipalities, although some communities may have eco-centres or special waste depots that accept mercury-containing lamps. To see if there are lamp-recycling options in your area, please contact your municipal waste management department, your provincial/territorial environmental department, and/or non-profit recycling or environmental organizations in your region.  As mentioned in the Background fact sheet, extended producer responsibility (EPR) programs are rolling out and, in those provinces where they are active, the lighting industry or its “agents” are additional contacts.

As opportunities to send your mercury-containing lamps to recyclers emerge across the country, it is increasingly difficult to keep a list up to date.  If any of the information contained here is incomplete or in any way not up to date, please provide us with the missing or correct information.

Province-Wide Options

In those provinces and territories where EPR has been regulated, is it likely that pre-existing return-to-retail efforts will be incorporated with the broader program. 

British Columbia

The best way to find a collection site in B.C. is by going straight to the provincial program agent’s web site (Product Care) and browsing their “LightRecycle” directory. The B.C. EPR regulation is the first one in Canada to require that a collection program be established for spent fluorescent lamps from the institutional/commercial sector as well (by July 2012).

Ontario

The Recycling Council of Ontario ran two pilot programs in 2005 and 2007 to collect fluorescent lamps from the non-residential sector, which eventually led to the creation of the Take Back the Light program. The Ontario Ministry of the Environment funded these pilots and has publicly endorsed this effort by committing 100% of Government of Ontario-owned and/or operated facilities to be part of the program. The intent of this project is to recycle the 30 million fluorescent lamps disposed of yearly in the province by establishing ongoing collaboration among all the various players, including the sellers and buyers of fluorescent lamps in the institutional, commercial, and industrial sector.  Of particular importance are the “re-lampers” or retrofitters that use reverse logistics and sheer bulk-buying power to provide a simple, cost-effective lamp-recycling service for this sector.

The Summerhill Group (consultant/foundation/charity) and Sonepar (an electrical distribution company) have teamed up to offer lamp-recycling services to companies undertaking lighting retrofits through the Ontario Power Savings Blitz program. This ensures that lamps which become obsolete through  the Government of Ontario incented energy-efficiency retrofit program are being properly managed and recycled. Sonepar is also a participant in the Take Back the Light program.

Quebec

In 2008, a program in Quebec called RecycFluo was established by the Fédération Québécoise des Municapilités (FQM) in partnership with Laurentide re-sources and with financial aid from Hydro-Québec. RecycFluo distributes collection bins for spent lamps, coordinates municipal drop-off sites throughout Quebec in conjunction with the province’s paint collection program, maintains an informative web site, and provides media tool kits to its municipal partners. All lamps collected via RecycFluo are recycled by Aevitas.  RecycFluo’s program provides municipalities with an opportunity to offer compact-fluorescent lamp (CFL) collection and recycling services to their citizens.  Small businesses could access the program by using the municipal collection point in their area. 
 
The following retailers (in alphabetic order) provide drop-off containers for spent mercury-containing lamps, but please note that this posted information is subject to change without notice:

Canadian Tire – Canadian Tire is working with the Recycling Council of Ontario through its Take Back the Light fluorescent lamp recycling program to offer lamp-recycling services to its customers. Launched in the summer of 2010, the Canadian Tire Lamp Recycling Program is offered in all of its 200 Ontario locations.  Each store has a CFL Recycling Centre located by the Customer Service Desk. The Canadian Tire program accepts all mercury-containing lamps. If customer lamps do not fit in the CFL collection container, those lamps can be taken to the Customer Service Desk where a Canadian Tire Associate will accept them for recycling.

Home Depot – In 2007, Home Depot Canada launched a national CFL recycling program at 160 of its store locations. At each Home Depot store, customers will find a CFL recycling unit located at the entrance by the special services desk. Customers can simply bring in their expired CFLs, place them in one of the plastic bags provided, seal the bag, and deposit it into the display container.  Each store monitors this bin and, once full, sends the expired CFLs to be responsibly recycled.

IKEA – All 11 Canadian IKEA stores have provided a “Free Take Back” program for CFLs since 2001. Their customers are invited to return all expired brands of CFLs to IKEA stores so that they can be disposed of responsibly. A special drop-off container is located in the returns and exchanges area. The returned lamps are collected by Raw Materials Company and delivered to a recycling facility.

London Drugs – In British Columbia, London Drugs will accept spent CFLs and four-foot fluorescent light tubes at any of its 45 retail outlets. Customers are asked to bag or box the lamps and drop them off at the Customer Service Counter or preferably at the Receiving Department. The mercury-containing lamps are then sent to PROECO where they are responsibly recycled.

RONA – Participating RONA stores will accept spent CFLs in order to properly manage them. Customers are advised that these lamps should not be thrown into the garbage. There are 590 corporate and independent RONA stores across Canada. The 135 corporate stores accept CFLs and the remaining independents are gradually being brought into the program.

Totem Building Supplies – Totem is a local hardware store chain in Alberta. In 2008, it launched the “CFL Recuperation and Recycling Program” at all 15 of its stores. Customers are invited to drop their spent mercury-containing CFLs into a collection bin near the entrance. Signage and instructions request that people put old bulbs into a plastic bag and then into the receptacle. When the bin is full, the store seals it up, attaches a mailing label, and ships it to a recycler.

Please contact us if you know of other retailer-based collection programs that should be included in our list or if any of the information in this fact sheet is not up to date.