State touts bright idea for bulbs (Maine)

[jpak]

http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/story.php?id=113968&ac=PHnws

Mainers who have switched to energy-saving compact fluorescent bulbs will now have an easy, and earth-friendly, way to dispose of them when they burn out.

Hardware stores and other retailers are collecting the bulbs as part of what is considered the nation's first statewide recycling program for compact fluorescents.

The program, which could become a national model, is intended to assure consumers that they'll be able to get rid of the bulbs and to head off the looming environmental problem of bulbs -- and the toxic mercury inside them -- piling up in the trash.

"We're out there encouraging people to switch to the fluorescents," said Nicole Clegg of Efficiency Maine. "We need to be thinking about what happens when they burn out."

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