Well kids, I’m back. Although I admit it’s somewhat reluctantly because that vacation was good stuff. But now it’s on to new and wondrous things … like the frustration of doing the right thing for the planet.

Have you noticed the new ad campaigns for compact fluorescent lights (known as CFLs)? Even Walmart has ironically jumped on the green bandwagon (considering their record of EPA violations) with a new set of ads. And just today while I was making my morning oatmeal (I’m trying this whole get healthy thing), I noticed a cross-promotional ad for CFLs from Pixar’s Ratatouille movie and the gov’s Energy Star program. I’m all for people switching out inefficient incandescent bulbs to CFLs, even if that means they get them at Walmart. (According to Energy Star, CFLs use 75% less energy than traditional bulbs and save about $30 in energy costs over the bulb’s lifetime.) We’ve switched about half the lights in our home to CFLs.

But here’s my new problem. How do you dispose of them when they burn out or break? According to Energy Star and the tiny writing on the base of the CFLs, each one contains a tiny amount of mercury and thus must be disposed of as a hazardous waste. While I’m not so worried about the mercury in an everyday way (it’s encased in glass inside the bulb and is a very small amount, even smaller than old mercury thermometers), I had one burn out recently and it stumped me as to how to get rid of it. As every modern woman does, I googled my problem. The short answer is that the EPA and Energy Star prefer you recycle your CFLs. Throwing them out with the regular trash can leach that small amount of mercury into landfills and thus into groundwater and soils. Not good.

But what if you live in a place like Las Vegas, which has no recycling facility for such items? After calling our monopoly trash/recycling company Republic Services, I found out that the only option is to drive it down to their recycling center on Gowan Road (take a copy of your bill with you or you’ll get charged for the service of recycling). Or you can wait until the once-a-year free day when folks can take any of their hazardous trash (paint, oil, old batteries, CFLs, etc.) to the Sloan trash collection site. This year’s day is Sept. 8. so mark your calendars, if you are willing to wait. (Personally, I plan to head over to Sloan in September.)

And while I hate to give an easy out, I know some people aren’t going to do either one of those options (since it involves work to recycle). So if you are just going to throw your used CFL (or batteries) away, the least you can do is double bag them in plastic baggies. That’s what the EPA recommends, to avoid leaching mercury into the landfill. It’s really not a solution at all, but better than just letting things get into our groundwater.

I still like using CFLs and I still believe they are better for the earth than traditional bulbs. But perhaps it’s time to put a little pressure on Republic Services to be more customer-friendly in its recycling program. After all, we all pay for it in our bills, whether we use it or not. (Of course, the company likes to make it sound like it’s free to everyone, but really, it’s just a cost already included in our regular bill.) What do ya say, Las Vegas?